The Message
by schillingklaus
Summary: A prophecy foretells the return of the true heir of the PCA, to be reveiled among its pupils by an omen.


**The Message**

* * *

**Klaus Schilling**

**Rating** PG-13

**Disclaimer** iDon't Own any of the shows or any of the other quoted or alluded artworks.

**Fandoms** _Zoey 101_, _The iCarly Show_, _True Jackson VP_, _Ned__'__s Declassified School Survival Guide_, _Unfabulous_, _Latest Buzz_, _Sonny With A Chance_, _Naturally Sadie_, _Hannah Montana_, _Suite Life of Zack and Cody_, _Camp Rock_, _Life with Derek_

**Genre:** Occultist Romance, Fluff, Family, Friends, Spiritual, Mystery, Science Fiction

**Summary** Mr. Bradford, the owner of the PCA, is supposed to be an imposter. An omen is going to reveal the true heir. Will the latter be restored in his office?

**Characters and Pairings:** Dustin Brooks / Carly Shay, Zoey Brooks / Spencer Shay, Lola Martinez / Drake Parker , Chase Matthews / Addie Singer, James Garrett / Nicole Bristow, Stacey Dillsen / Eric Blonowitz, Quinn Pensky / Simon Nelson Cooke, Coco Wexler / Walter Nichols, Vincent Blake / Shelby Marx, Logan Reese / Dana Cruz / Maris Bingham / Cranberry Sinclair / Patti Perez / Vivian Marx / Dakota North, Megan Parker / Nevel Papperman, Samantha Puckett / Fredward Benson, Joshuah Nichols / Mindy Crenshaw and many many many more

**Timeline:** The Story starts following the finale of _Zoey 101_. It diverges from iCarly after the first season. It is post-series _Drake & Josh_, _Unfabulous_, _Ned__'__s Declassified School Survival Guide_. It is AU for _True Jackson VP_. The other shows only provide filler characters and does not allude in any coherent way to their canon timeline events.

* * *

The story is dedicated to Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa

* * *

**Explanation**

The story is named after F. Pessoa's _Mensagem_.

**Sebastianism:** In his national epos **Mensagem**, Fernando Pessoa describes poetically and symbolically the Portuguese history from the mythical foundation of Lisbon by Odyseeus through Pessoa's own time. He stresses in particular the mysterious death of King Sebastian in the desperate battle of Alcazar-Quivir, Morocco, in 1578. The battle itself resulted in the temporary loss of Portuguese autonomy, but it also fostered the Sebastianist legend according to which King Sebastian is supposed to return one day and lead Portugal to new imperial strength and glory. Gonçalo Bandarra, a craftsman from Trancoso in central Portugal, had written messianic prophesies in early sixteenth century which had been suspicious to the Holy Inquisition, probably because of Bandarra's supposed Jewish roots. Postmortally, Bandarra's poems became interpreted as Sebastianic prophetic messages, starting probably with Jesuit priest António Vieira in early seventeenth century. Vieira rehabilitated Bandarra, identifying the the expected Sebastianic era with the fifth empire according to the _Citetitle of Daniel_. Vieira's vigorous intervention effected the new independence of Portugal.

**The Five Empires:** Alas, Vieira expected the regained autonomy of portugal as a begin of the fulfilled prophecy — King John was considered as a placeholder for Sebastian. His five empires were: The Persian and Median Empire, The Hellenic Empire, The Roman Empire, The Medieval Christian Church, The pending Empire of King Sebastian . Later supporters of Sebastianism felt compelled to revise this, if not alone for the reason that Sebastian would have been way too old, if he had survived. For Pessoa, the empires are the following:

**1. ** The Hellenic Empires of the Antique

**2. **The Pagan Roman Empire

**3. **The Medieval Roman Catholic Church

**4. **The modern secularised Western World

**5. **The Empire of King Sebastian after his return

Each empire absorbs the essences of the older ones and extends them with something new.

**Cultural Imperialism** Pessoa emphasised the cultural and spiritual qualities of the pending empire, as opposed to a discernable political and military unit. Also, King Sebastian is to be understood as a symbol for the strength of Portugal, not as an individual historical person.

**Relevance** The background story of The Message is the following: Some students realise that the current owner of the PCA, Mr. Bradford, is just an imposter, not the legitimate heir of the founder of the school. The proper heir has vanished since long time. Only the revelation of the true owner of the school, so the prophecies go, is going to restore peace and serenity to the Pacific Coast Academy, but also extend its renown and cultural impact to global dimensions. A series of omens is going to reveal the true heir of the PCA among its students, resulting in efforts to restore him in his legitimate office. The rule of the true heir will establish the Fifth Empire of the Pacific Coast Academy, i.e. turn the PCA into the world's unique cultural and spiritual central authority.

* * *

**Contents**

Chapter 1 Mystery Man Mr. Takato  
Chapter 2 Vacations  
Chapter 3 Summer Break-Up  
Chapter 4 Another Fall  
Chapter 5 Another Fall(cont.)  
Chapter 6 School Annals  
Chapter 7 Who Is James?  
Chapter 8 Firewire On The Prowl  
Chapter 9 The Witness  
Chapter 10 Trading Roomies  
Chapter 11 St. Schneider's  
Chapter 12 News From Kansas  
Chapter 13 Champion of Poets  
Chapter 14 Dust In The Wind  
Chapter 15 The Opera  
Chapter 16 Happy Birthday, Zoey!  
Chapter 17 White Knight On His Steed

* * *

**Chapter 1 Mystery Man Mr. Takato**

* * *

**Time** Zoey's Junior Party at PCA, right where _Chasing Zoey_ left off.

**Place** The PCA Party Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Chase Matthews, Lola Martinez, Vincent Blake, Michael Barret, Lisa Perkins, Logan Reese, Quinn Pensky, Mark Del Figgalo, Stacey Dillsen, Firewire, Arthur, Doty[1], many anonymous students of the PCA, mainly juniors and their guests, Blake , Dirk, Suzée[2], other band members

Zoey smiled. It had been a wonderful evening. _In the beginning, she had wanted to stay away from the party, as she had trashed her intermediary boyfriend James Garrett right the day before the prom. She hadn't been able to concentrate on him, because she had felt guilty of having betrayed Chase Matthews, the boy who had had a crush on her for almost four years, something she only came to recognise once they were separated by an ocean. And this very prom night, Chase had come back from London, very much to Zoey's surprise. It seemed like the wonderful end of a fairy tale. They had kissed and made plans for a common suummer break: Down to the connections of her father, Zoey and Chase were rigged and ready for spending two weeks on Hawaii, in the most expensive of all hotels, where Zoey got accepted for a summer job as a life guard._

Logan and Quinn were still dancing.

Logan Reese had claimed that he was in love with Quinn.

The two of them had been dating for several weeks, unbeknownst to their closest friends.

Alas, Logan had been too embarassed to make this public, until the very moment that Stacey Dillsen, a girl that had had an obsessive, one-sided crush on him, had wanted him to kiss her passionately. In this very moment, Logan Reese had appeared to have overcome all embarassment.

Quinn had done the same upon hearing Logan's cry.

They had originally planned to keep on meeting in the secret, hence they had tricked Stacey and Dustin Brooks into covering them by being Quinn's and Logan's partners for the party, respectively.

Michael Barret was joyfully shocked when he noticed Chase being back from exile. And he rejoiced in the company of his girlfriend Lisa Perkins. _Alas, the latter still refused to believe him the story that he had learnt driving a stick car right before the prom, and, especially, his tales about how he had learnt it: His instructor was a certain Mr. Takato, an elderly Japanese man who had pretended to be a teacher at PCA middle school — something that could not be verified. On top of all this, Michael had seen Mr. Takato, during a break he had taken from the party, riding a cow across the dunes. He had begged Mr. Takato to show up to Lisa and other friends, but the mysterious elder had had to reject that becauae he did not exist._ Michael was hence left drowning in a sea of confusion. Nevertheless, Michael kept on enjoying the evening as long as possible, unaware of the things to come, envolving precisely Mr. Takato.

Chase appeared happy. He had bruised and almost broken his limbs upon seeing Zoey again. _This was probably his very destiny._ But, unlike all those many times ago, this time he had obtained what he considered, for the time being, his ultimate reward for almost four years of tribulations: Zoey's heart. But he also rejoiced in seeing his other friends again, especially Michael and Lola. And there were some other things he had come to wonder about. _Logan and Quinn? That was so foul and disgusting, he couldn't make any sense of it. But there apparently had to be something which he still needed to figure._ Even worse, he had seen Lola having tons of fun with his nemesis Vincent Blake, Chase was tempted to think of them as a couple. _How could that be?_ Chase had — once upon a time — denounced Vincent Blake unto Dean Rivers, effecting Vincent's suspension. _Vincent beat him up, inspite of the weak support he had been granted by Michael and Logan. This had lead to the expulsion of Vince. OK, so he was back, but how could Lola dare to befriend him, let alone date him in an erotic manner? There was apparently something wrotten in the state of Denmark._ Alas, Chase preferred to dance the night away, looking forward to the beach of Hawaii and teasing hula-dancing Zoey.

Lola had gone through quite a few troubles with her new lover boy, Vincent Blake. She had been pleased when she noticed Chase back from the stray, but she was obsessed with Vincent's erotic charm. _How could she bear the upcoming conflict between her lover and her long-time friend?_ She didn't want to think about it. And little had she understood the background of Vincent's rapid change from a mean-spirited bully into a gentleman and role model.

Mark del Figgalo and Stacey danced side by side.

Mark had almost run over Stacey with Michael's car.

Stacey had lost her penetrant lisp.

Were they now going to be a couple? They didn't want to think about the future in this very fairy tale night when the band of Dirk, Blake, and Suzée citetitleed long relentlessly.

Zoey had been floating atop of cloud seven the whole evening through. This way she had overcome the depressions that had kept her ball and chain in the time right before the prom. But in getting stripped of her mental tribulation, Zoey had also recovered her sense of responsibility for her little brother Dustin whome she had neglected carelessly for some week. She sighed. "Sorry, Chase," remarked Zoey, "I really should look after Dustin."

Chase nodded. _It would have been too perfect ..._ Alas, Chase knew very well that Zoey could never get rid of her attitude. And, as much as it annoyed him, he took it as a sign that Zoey would become a good mother for their future common children. "OK, look for your brother, and remember me unto him!"

"Will do!" Zoey smiled. She waved and left the prom hall.

Firewire, followed by his friends Doty and Arthur, had been hunting for lonely girls at the ball for quite some hour. Now they saw Zoey leaving the hall. They figured erroneously that Zoey must have ditched Chase, and they concluded that they should go and hunt her down. They bounded out, shouting after Zoey. They were still wondering whether the end of the world was near. _What exacty were the signs of the pending dystopia?_ They shrugged helplessly when they left.

Chase didn't care about that. He knew that Zoey could easily dispatch with a bunch of freak if she needed to. _She had taken courses in wrestling and jui-tsu, just in case that it came down to it._ He shrugged and walked slowly away as he didn't want to disturb Michael's fun with Lisa, and he did not want to get too close to Vincent Blake. _Nobody knew that there was something else Chase was up to doing, the very same night ..._

At the same time, Lola and Vince had to anounce something unto each other.

"My little sister Ashley [3] is coming to the PCA!"

Lola was somewhat flabbergasted. _Ashley Blake was one of her worst rivals at Hollywood._ It was a shock for her that she was actually related to Vincent. Alas, she had to annnounce something similar: "My cousins Vivian [4] and Shelby [5] are coming to PCA!" She plastered a feint smile.

Vince shrugged. "OK!"

Neither of them were able to anticipate the turmoil to be reared when their younger relatives were going to enter the school.

* * *

**Time** Same evening, a few minutes later

**Place** 66 Butler Hall — dorm of Dustin Brooks

**People** Dustin Brooks, Scooter[6] , Zoey (later on), anonymous dorm adviser of 66 Butler (voice)

Dustin lay on his bed. he wanted to either die or leave the PCA as fast as possible. He had been treated like dirt by Quinn Pensky and Logan Reese. When Logan had fessed up, Dustin had noticed that he had been shamelessly abused in order to cover their disgraceful relationship.

Scooter was flabbergasted. He had not always been at good terms with Dustin, but when he saw his usually cheerful roomie weeping himself to death, he felt a lot of pity. He ruffled Dustin's hair in a vain attempt to cheer him up.

The door got knocked.

Scooter stood up and opened it. "Zoey!" He sighed with relief, hoping that Zoey was able to help Dustin. _Apparently nobody else would have done._

Zoey was flabbergasted when she saw that piteous lump of misery cringing on his bed, whimpering in pain and disgust. "Dustin?"

Dustin was not able to answer.

"He wants to leave the PCA ... or die!" Scooter was anxious.

Zoey sighed with despair. _It wasn't the first time that Dustin had made threats like that._ Alas, this time, she felt really guilty. She called the dorm adviser and, after explaining the situation, asked him for being allowed to take Dustin to her dorm over night. She was convincing enough to get her request granted.

Scooter told Zoey as much as he knew about the incident with Quinn and Logan.

Zoey felt more guilty than ever for having let Dustin down when he needed her most. If she had been aware of Dustin getting asked out by Quinn for prom, she would never have allowed him to accompany her. _Alas, now it was late, but one thing was sure: Quinn and Logan were going to pay dearly for their shameless exploit of Dustin's naïvity, notwithstanding any reason they may have had for their insane fraud._

* * *

**Place** Out on the PCA's campus, near some shrubbery.

**People** Firewire, Arthur, Doty, Chase Matthews (voice), James Garrett (voice)

Firewire and his two pals had been tramping the campus. They had lost Zoey soon after leaving the party hall, and now they wandered around aimlessly. They had given up all their hopes — they weren't going to get a last-minute date for the rest of the prom night, especially not Zoey Brooks. _And the apocalypse was probly still close._ Suddenly, they heard some voices behind a bush they were about passing.

"Shut it!" told Firewire unto Doty and Arthur. "There's someone hiding in the bushes!" he whispered carefully.

Doty and Arthur agreed. Like their boss, they decided to hark and listen.

The voices behind the bush were, almost beyond any doubt, those of Chase Matthews and James Garrett.

"Thanks for everything, Denifer[7] !" Chase told James. "And here are the fivehundred bucks that we've agreed upon."

James chuckled. "Plus the costs for the dinner at Vaccaro's."

"OK ..." Chase sighed. "So, Zoey has actually kissed you? I'd never have thought that ..."

"Some girls are apparently more volatile than others." James chuckled.

"See you around!" Chase sobbed.

For Firewire, it wasn't hard to make sense of it. _Chase had apparently paid James, or however he called himself, for testing Zoey's chastity and loyality. Apparently, she had failed the test badly._ "What will Chase do?"

"Trash Zoey for having cheated on him?" Doty grinned.

"Then she will be free again!" Arthur smiled.

Arthur, Doty, and Firewire high-fived. They did not have to give up on Zoey Brooks, not yet, and this made them incredibly happy.

* * *

**Time** Next sunrise.

**Place** The margins of the campus

**People** Zoey Brooks, Lisa Perkins, Chase Matthews, Michael Barret

Michael had told his friends to meet him here, right at the spot where he had seen Mr. Takato riding a bony old cow.

Zoey's night had been horrible. She had been sitting right by Dustin's bed, singing him a variety of lullaby's songs and trying to get him to fall asleep by means of all the other ways she had used to apply before he had left his home for the first time in order to enroll at the PCA.

Chase sighed. He would have forgiven Zoey if she had fessed up right upon their encounter down by the staircase. _But she had pretended the whole evening that she had been all chaste and faithful while he was gone. He had allowed her to date boys, but this had not included the permission to kiss and make out, just to go together to dinner and to theatre._ Now he felt urged to dump Zoey, but it was such a hard thing to do, after all. He met Zoey and tried to talk to her,

Michael saw Zoey and Chase. "Do you at least believe me my story about Mr. Takato? I swear by the health of my grandma!"

Having lost a grandmother not too long ago, Chase had no reason to doubt Michael's words. "I believe you!"

Michael huggled Chase. "At least someone ..."

Lisa chuckled.

Zoey believed Lisa rather than Michael. "Come on, you must have drunk some wine!"

Michael choked and coughed.

Without having found an occasion to talk to Zoey, Chase walked away with Michael. "Girls ..." He shook his head.

"See you later!" Lisa smiled. "I better get some sleep!" She yawned heartily.

Zoey nodded. She wanted to get some sleep, too. But before she walked away, she looked to the ground. _There was something lying around: A notecitetitle of some sort. It was the same spot where, according to Michael's reckless fantasy, imaginary Mr. Takato must have been riding a cow._ She picked up the citetitle. _It wasn't written in Japanese, but Zoey shrugged because she could not really understand it._ She decided to take a closer look at it after having slept for a few hours. _It can't have been an accident that the citetitle had appeared rightwhere some mystery man was said to have appeared._ Zoey was totally confused, _but time was going to tell_.

* * *

**Chapter 2 Vacations**

* * *

**Time** Last day before the summer break

Finally, Zoey's junior year was over. The students awaited the summer vacations. Too bad it was not going to be an enjoyable break for everyone ...

* * *

**Time** After breakfast

**Place** Lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Quinn Pensky, Lola Martinez, many other pupils (background)

The girls from dorm 101 hgad already gotten their belongings together, not leaving anything behind. Thereupon, they were rigged and ready for the vacations, weren't they?

Zoey yawned._ Chase had returned to London in order to prepare everything for his return to the PCA before Zoey woke up from her first sleep following the prom._ Zoey had not yet told anyone about the citetitlelet. And she hadn't had any time to say anything to Chase. She had refused to talk to him ever since, down to all the thoughts she had wasted on the citetitlelet. _Where was that going to?_ She couldn't make much sense of the text. _It appeared to be a long poem, or a collection of poems, which connect the past of the PCA and its future in an apocalyptic manner._ Normally, Zoey would have laughed about those things, but the apparition of Charles Galloway had made her tremble. _Maybe there were more things under the sun than scholarly wisdom could tell?_ So far, Zoey's temptative lecture had only thrown her into a state of confusion, making her sink deeper and deeper with every other page. _Maybe the citetitlelet even mentioned Galloway? But those poets used to name people by nicknames that were not meant to make sense for the simple minds of normal mortals. At the centre of the inflict there was some Prince of Glory who would one foggy morning come back upon his white steed to mend all wrongs of the Pacific Coast Academy and set every maiden free, ruling thereupon impartially over the world til the end of the times._ Zoey didn't know what to make of it, even worse, she didn't know anyone to whom she could trust her thoughts. _Certainly not rationalistic Quinn, or hysterical Lola, or superficial Logan, or insane Michael. And Dustin was probably too young to get involved into the whole mess._ On Hawaii, she was going to meet Chase matthews again. But Zoey wasn't inclined to talk to him about the citetitleleet and its fatidic stanzas. And little did she know about the hilarious deal between James and Chase. Firewire had repeatedly tried to talk to Zoey during the few days between prom night and the start of the summer break, but she had always been able to escape from his attempts. Zoey couldn't stand Firewire's sarcastic grin. _Oh, yeah, James ..._ Zoey hadn't seen him since the day preceding prom night. She had no clue where he had gone to. She feared the worst: _Having been left heart-broken, he might have disappeared in the pacific seas, maybe he was already torn into pieces by some coastal sharks ..._ Zoey was still in the lounge when she was already tortured by unspeakable remorses.

"Where is Dustin?" Quinn asked Zoey. "Won't you fly together to London?"

"Who? Where? What?" Zoey stammered.

Quinn and Lola didn't get it. _Zoey had been mentally absent during the last few days._ They wouldn't have had a reason to wonder if Zoey had totally forgotten about Dustin!

Quinn was worried about other things. _Logan was so dumb, he couldn't understand her talk about Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. How could a boy be that stupid?_

Lola grinned. "Too bad I have to tutor Vivian and Shelby, my cousins ..." Lola moaned. "They come to the PCA after the summer ... Vivian is dumber than dumb!"

"Aw, I know someone who would be a great match for her ..." Quinn grumbled, still slightly dismayed by Logan's ignorance.

"Oh, really? Who?" Lola smiled.

"Er ... nobody ..." Quinn coughed, but she didn't really want to talk about it.

* * *

**Place** Dustin's dorm

**People** Dustin Brooks, Scooter

Scooter sighed when he looked into every angle for things he might have forgotten. "Next year, my neighbour's girl Megan Parker will join this school!"

"Oh ..." Dustin sighed. "Is she cute?"

"Yeah, but Megan can be really tricky and cunning ..." Scooter moaned.

Dustin shrugged. "Whatever ... I have to go to London over the summer, and I hate the weather of London!"

"Who doesn't ..." Scooter sobbed. "But didn't Zoey say something about Hawaii?"

Dustin grumbled. "She is going to Hawaii with Chase, but I ... Zoey told mom that I'm still too young and immature for that. But she really just desn't want me to bother her when she's spending some time with with Chase." He choked hard and shuddered with outright disgust.. "But next year will be the time for making Quinn and Logan pay!" He sighed. "Anyways, Zoey appears now more depressed than even before the prom. I wonder what had been going on ..."

Scooter didn't have an answer, and he didn't know how to look for one.

Dustin was really scared to go to London with Zoey by his side. Alas, he had to hurry up. _Coco Wexler was going to take the Brooks kids to the airport, and she didn't use to tolerate any delays as she wanted to be back for lunch._

* * *

**Place** Parking Site of the PCA, car of Coco Wexler

**People** Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks, Coco Wexler, lots of students (background, outside), Firewire (phone)

Dustin and Zoey were already sitting in the car of Coco Wexler. They had hastily waved at their friends for a last time.

Coco started to wolf down a can of ravioli. She burped.

Dustin sighed. _Zoey hadn't yet said anything to him._

Quinn and Lola were out of sight.

Coco started the motor and lamented. "Carl[8] was terribly mean. He said that he is going to spend rthis summer with his mother. And I hate his mother!" She burped rudely and shivered.

Zoey and Dustin were not at all interested in Coco's lamentations.

The car started rolling.

Coco wasn't much of a concentrated car driver. She bitched and moaned every other second. _That lot of students populating the drop site didn't help much._

Zoey just stared around silently. This was absolutely not her usual manner.

Dustin tried to squeeze a few words from his sister's tongue, but he failed miserably. He was terribly annoyed by Coco's indecent demeanour.

All of a sudden, Zoey's cellular phone vibrated.

Even Dustin felt the quivering. He urged Zoey to pick it up.

Zoey moaned. "Zoey Brooks ... oh no, Firewire! I don't want to date you, period ..." Zoey croaked. "I've got Chase ..."

Firewire's insane cackling filled the air.

Dustin coughed with disgust.

Coco grunted and opened yet another can of ravioli.

"What do you say?" Zoey was dismayed. "Oh no, Chase would never ..."

Dustin had only marginally understood a few of Firewire's words, but he was worried. _ What did he know about Chase?_

Firewire cackled over and over again, annoying the hell out of Zoey.

_Could that be true?_ Zoey's face was frozen to a block of stone. _Her stomach cramped and rumoured like a vulcano that is ready for erruption._ "He hired James for ..."

"Don't vomit into my car!" Coco bellowed brashly.

Dustin was dismayed. Coco was really messy, she was by no means entitled to request that from Zoey! Dustin glared viciously at Coco.

"OK, vomit!" Coco sighed. "It doesn't matter anyways ... Carl's cat has ruined the backseat like five weeks ago ..." She gurgled disgustinly. After all, she didn't care about Zoey's health or confusion.

Dustin, in turn, was a bit worried. No, way more than just a bit. He would never have thought that Chase would have done such a thing: _Paying James for testing Zoey's loyality._ He knew that there are jealous wives who hire husband testers. _But why would Chase do something like that? If anything, he was hoplessly naïve._ But he would have rather bet on Fireway making up such an accusation, because he still hadn't given up on Zoey.

Finally, Zoey couldn't withstand any longer and spilled her partially digested breakfast all over Coco's backseat.

Dustin was marginally hit by the warm, stinky torrent. Alas, he loved his sister too much to be mad at her. He grabbed some soft tissue and tried to clean up.

Coco just moaned deliriously.

* * *

**Place** aboard a plane from LA to London

**People** Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks, many passengers and air hostesses (background)

Zoey was slightly recovered from her shock. She knew that she had to talk to Chase about everything in London — before they took another plane to Honolulu. She was still pale.

"Do you believe Firewire?" Dustin asked.

"I don't want to ..." Zoey sighed. "But if it's true ..."

Dustin hugged Zoey. "Alright, I'll be here for you!"

Zoey sighed with relief.

All of a sudden, a lightening flashed and a thunder roared.

They were flying above the clouds, thus it was pretty much unusual to encounter a lightening.

Dustin glared through the window. "Whoah ... you won't believe me!" He sighed. He had seen something, but it was all but gone.

"Oh, what?" Zoey didn't care. If she wondered whether to believe Firewire's accusations or not, why would she have hesitated believing Dustin?

"I've seen like ... a prince on a white steed, down in the clouds!" Dustin squealed.

Zoey choked hard. _Of course, with a lot of fantasy, it's possible to see many a thing in the billowing mass of clouds, whether from above or from below. But did it have to be a prince on a white steed? The citetitlelet of Mr. Takato had prophesied that the true ruler of ther Pacific coast was going to return upon a white horse._ Alas, she wasn't strong enough to tell Dustin about it. _The thoughts about Chase having hired James were strangling her mind._

* * *

**Time** same day, evening hours

**Place** San Diego Belleview, frontyard of the mansion of the Parker family

**People** Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Joshuah Nichols, Scooter, Mindy Crenshaw

Josh was bickering with his girlfriend Mindy.

The young adults had just been accepted to Caltech Undergraduate school in Pasadena.

Drake sighed. He and his step-brother Josh had shared a room for five years, but this time had now come to an end.

Megan was excited when Robbie aka Scotter arrived. She helped him with his luggage because she wanted to know more about the school she was going to transfer to.

Robbie sighed. "Those days are stressy ... see, my roomie has been abused shamelessly by his sister's friends, now he's in London over the summer break ..."

Megan grinned. "If he wants to, I'm going to help him get back at those boobs ..." She smirked. _**Boob**__ was a term she had coined for Drake and Josh, but applied painlessly to all boys that were in their age and that were as useless as her brothers._

"Aw, I know that you will!" Robbie chuckled.

Drake shrugged helplessly. He was a rock star and was going on tour during the next six months. "I've already performed at your school ..." He admitted. [9] . "By the way, Megan's cousin Carly from Seattle will also come."

Megan shrugged. "We look much alike. I hope that people may tell us apart!"

"That's easy!" Drake and Josh declared unison. "Carly is all nice and spice, while you are a little devil!"

Megan grunted. "Shut up, boobs!"

"Carly Shay?" Robbie grinned.

Megan nodded. "You know her?" She was astonished.

"She makes a webshow, it's called iCarly." Robby grinned. "I like that show, and so do most of my friends, especially my roomie Dustin!"

"Maybe I can scrape some of her popularity off her!" Megan cackled.

Drake, Josh, and Mindy went back into the house of the Parkers.

Megan sighed. "OK, I've dreamt something sweet yet scary last night ..." Her breath was unsteady. She preferred whispering. "I've dreamt that, on the campus of your school, I'd get picked up by a white knight on his steed who kissed me ..." She swooned.

Scooter coughed. Why couldn't he be a mounted champion? "Scary indeed, yeah ... do you think the dream has to say something?"

Megan shrugged. "Maybe ..." She sighed. If only she knew. _But time was going to tell her._

* * *

**Place** Seattle, Bushwell Plaza, The Lobby

**People** Fredward Benson, Carly Shay, Spencer Shay, Samantha Puckett, Marissa Benson

Spencer was a bit sad. _His little sister was finally accepted by the best boarding school of the West Coast: The Pacific Coast Academy._ He had been her guardian of several years, _but now their grandpa decided to send Carly to a boarding school because Spencer was not responsible enough, and Carly hated the air of Yakima where grandpa resided_.

"You will have more time for your arts!" Carly tried to calm Spencer. _Alas, her eyes were full of tears._

Freddie, the nice boy next door, was equally consternated. He had tried to conquer Carly's heart, but she had resisted religiously. _And now there was not a snowball's chance in hell left._ He had wanted to join Carly, but his obnoxious mother Marissa was against that. _She was disgustingly overprotective at times._

Sam had been Carly's best friend for five years. She wasn't someone to show emotions with ease, but this time, the tears went flowing freely and wetted her face like a blend of a rainstorm and a cataract.

Carly sobbed. "Alas, I've got the feeling something great will soon happen in California, and I'll witness it ..."

Freddie was a bone-dry pragmatist and not interested in Carly's romanticism. "There's no such thing as foreboding feelings!"

"We will see ..." Carly thought, but she refrained from saying so.

Nevel Papperman entered the building. "Do you rue it, Carly?" He bellowed. "You rue the day! iCarly is now cancelled!"

Carly, Freddie, and Sam used to run a web show, and they did not know how to continue it when Carly was in California, leaving Freddie and Sam behind.

Carly was consternated and sighed. "Have you denounced me unto grandpa?"

Nevel grinned. "Maybe? It happens that I send messengers here and there ..."

Freddie and Sam wanted to strangle Nevel, but Spencer kept them from doing so as this wasn't going to change Carly's situation anymore.

* * *

**Chapter 3 Summer Break-Up**

* * *

**Time** Same year, Independence Day

**Place** The loft of the Brooks in London

**People** Zoey Brooks, Chase Matthews (later), Mr. Brooks[10] , Mrs. Brooks[11] , Colonel Roger Morgan [12] , Dustin Brooks, various other guests (background)

Zoey had been living unconsciously through the early weaks of July. _In England, the day of the independence day of the United States was not considered a holiday — of course. But Zoey's dad had taken a day off work and invited the American friends he had in London for a private celebration of the day of glory._

Zoey was particularly excited because Chase had been invited, too. _He would have preferred to spend the day in America, but he needed the whole week for getting his belongings together before his official return._

Another guest was Colonel Morgan of the US Airforce. He had been promoted into the headquarters of the American Forces stationed in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Brooks greeted the high officer.

The colonel nodded. "Long time no seen, since the desert storm ..."

Mr. Brooks grinned. _Those were the old days._ He hadn't even known that his wife was pregnant when he had left for the deserts.

"And now we get a new commander: It's Admiral Shay," announced Colonel Morgan.

Mr. Brooks beamed. "Good old Shay! Does he still have that poor excuse of a son?"

Colonel Morgan chuckled. "Spencer? Yeah, and he has got a daughter between Zoey's and Dustin's age, named Carlotta. Whatever, Spencer dropped out of Law School and is now a wannabe artist."

Zoey who had been helping her mother preparing the buffet sighed. _Lawyer or artist, that was the question. Zoey's parents wanted her to study law and business administration. Zoey liked talking people like Dustin out of conflicts _[_13_]_ , but she was even more intrested in the design of fashion, such as shirts_[_14_]_ ._ She sighed helplessly when she anticipated the time when she had to make her choice.

Dustin coughed. He had sometimes watched a web show called iCarly. He took his laptpop and activated iCarlyDOTcom. _Oh yeah, her surname was Shay._ He was excited. "Mr. Morgan! Do you know Carlotta's web show?"

Mr. Morgan chuckled. "I don't have the time to watch web shows, but it is cool. I once had to save her show from a certain Nevel Papperman."

"Cool!" Dustin beamed.

"And, by the way, you are still at the Pacific Coast Academy?" asked Colonel Morgan.

The members of the Brooks family nodded.

"Well, Carlotta is going to join that school, too." Roger Morgan smiled. "Her grandpa, the good old shark, has graduated from that school fifty like years ago. Back then it was a mere school for boys."

"We know!" Mr. Brooks chuckled. "Zoey was the first girl to be accepted over there."

A shockwave made Zoey's dorsal spine vibrate like an earthquake. _Fifty years ago ... that was the time when Charles Galloway went to the PCA, until he fled to Redstone Gulch and died there._ Zoey couldn't get rid of the suspicion that there was a connection between some of the sayings she had read in the citetitlelet she had found at the spot where Michael had seen Mr. Takato for the very last time. _With some luck, Zoey had found a reliable witness for the time. But she needed to contact the old man._ Zoey decided to ask Carlotta Shay after the summer break. She could have tried to ask Mr. Morgan, but she did not have an idea as of how to justify that. _It was much easier to talk about this to younger people_.

The door bell rang.

Dustin stormed to the door. "Chase!" He yelled with excitement. Thereupon, he opened the door.

Chase Matthews entered the loft.

Mr. Brooks welcomed Chase.

Zoey approached Chase only with hesitation. She knew that some tragic moment was likely to await them. She had had intention to talk to Chase a week earlier, but she never got that far. _And this was the last occasion before the trip to Hawaii, and a break-up down by the sunny beach of Maui island was impossible to survive. If it had to be, misty and cloudy London was a far better place._

Mom grinned. "You may go to your room!"

Zoey nodded sadly. Poor mom had no idea what had been going on inside Zoey. She grabbed Chase's wrists and dragged him along.

* * *

**Place** The loft of the Brooks in London, Zoey's and Dustin's room

**People** Zoey Brooks, Chase Matthews, Dustin Brooks (later)

Zoey's heart beat like a rusty steam engine.

Chase knew that something was going on. But how had Zoey found out?

Zoey coughed. "So you already know what happened in your absence?" She hadn't dared to ask a more specific question.

Chase shrugged. He looked around. "Nice room you've got here. Is your bed the top- or the bottom bunk?"

Zoey shook her head. I've got the bottom bunk, asn Dustin the top one. "He's afraid of monsters hiding under the bed."

Chase chuckled. "So he should be horribly afraid if you sleep in the bottom bunk, while he sleeps in the top bunk?"

Zoey understood that Chase compared her to a monster. "Aw you ..."

Chase ducked.

Zoey was still too excited to get straight to the point.

"I've talked a bit to Michael, but not much." Chase reported.

"So you know James Garrett?" Zoey coughed. _It was incredibly hard to mention that name._

"Vaguely," remarked Chase. "Michael only mntioned him briefly." Chase knew James only by his pseudonym, Denifer.

"He's tall and blond and he was totally new at the PCA ..." Zoey croaked painfully.

Chase went pale. He figured now that James and Denifer were the same person. "Oh, really?" His voice was low.

Zoey nodded. She did not know that Chase had known James only by a different names. Hence she deemed Chase a hypocritical pretender. Thereupon, she lost her fear of sounding brash beyond need. "So you've paid someone to spy on me while I was gone?"

Chase gurgled, reeled, and staggered, kissing the door knob while he stumbled aimlessly. _This hurt endlessly more than the crash against the flag pole that had occurred upon his very first encounter with the blond maid._

Zoey didn't want Chase to get hurt too much. _Fortunately, he didn't appear bleeding._ She sighed with relief when she grabbed Chase and sat him on her bed.

Chase sighed. "Spying is such a hard word ..."

"OK ..." Zoey sighed. "How would you call it?"

Chase scratched his head for several minutes. "I've told Denifer ... James ... to look after you?"

Zoey banged her head against the wall. _Whatever Chase had paid James for, did it really matter? James may have kissed her first, but their relationship had lasterd for several weeks, and Zoey had wished to be alone with James on several occasions_[_15_]_ . There was no way for her to deny that it was not just a weakness of the moment, and that's all what counted._

"So, is James a better kisser?" Chase asked.

Zoey didn't want to answer. She glared at Chase with growing intensity, filled with feelings of guilt and shame.

The door was flung open.

Dustin stumbled in. "Zoey!"

Zoey was consternated.

Dustin shrugged. "Are you OK?"

_Nothing was OK!_ "Er ... sure?" Zoey stammered helplessly.

Dustin didn't believe Zoey.

"Hawaii is cancelled!" Zoey declared with a thundering voice.

Dustin wondered what had been going on.

Chase laughed sarcastically. "So, Dustin, whom would you have liked Zoey to choose? Me or Denifer?"

Dustin coughed. _Yes, he had seen Denifer way back when his sister and her peer friends were quarantined. And he had almost forgotten abouyt him._ "James is Denifer?"

Zoey was consternated. "You knew him already?" She glared at Dustin.

Dustin nodded. "Yeah, when you were quarantined, I thought that he was the Danny whom you had wanted to date."

"And you only tell me now?" Zoey's eyes drilled through Dustin's brain like laser beams.

"Sorry, sis, I must have forgotten about him!" Dustin trembled. He knew that Zoey would never damage him on purpose, _but maybe she was out of control_. "But what has all that got to do with Hawaii?"

Zoey supposed that Dustin had known about Chase's espionage. She kicked her bed imprudently. _Probably everyone had known about it: Logan, Michael, Lola, Quinn ..._

Chase tried to say something. He felt awfully sorry for his actions, but he couldn't undo them.

Dustin pondered. He would have preferred Chase by Zoey's side because he had got the older rights. But he couldn't say much against James, either. _But why did all of that matter?_ "Dunno, it's Zoey's choice anyways whom she dates. I shouldn't mess with that!"

Zoey nodded. "Good Dustin! So, Chase, how much did you pay James for looking after me, or whatever you want to name it?"

Dustin was consternated. "Chase did what?"

"It was Colon's[16] idea ..." Chase stammered.

Zoey grunted. "If you want to abuse your roomie as a poor excuse, better get his name right!" She bellowed: "His name is Colin!"

Chase sighed.

"And if God told you to do so," thundered Dustin, "get out of my sister's life! And same goes for James, or Denifer, or whatever fake name he has assumed!"

Chase wanted to explain something, concerning Colin and stuff, but Zoey wouldn't have understood him. He hadn't understood Colin and his obscure concerns, either. Chase didn't know, _but for some reasons, Colin had appeared very well informed about the event at the PCA_. Now Chase preferred to get the hell out of Zoey's room. He wished he could get out of her life that fast, but _destiny wasn't going to grant this wish._

Zoey hugged Dustin. "Good bro!" She sighed with relief. "But no word to mom or dad!"

Dustin sighed. He knew that it was going to be extremely tough to keep the whole thing secret ...

* * *

**Place** Some Technology Camp near Seattle.

**People** Fredward Benson, Quinn Pensky, Shane[17]

While the breakup between Zoey and Chase had been a long and painful affair, it was much easier for Quinn Pensky to do the right thing.

They couldn't agree on the way to spend their vacations.

Logan would have preferred to spend it lazily down by some sandy beach.

Quinn preferred a science camp. This discrepance was unbridgeable, hence Quinn decided to separate from Logan and pass the summer with people that were worthy of her, such as her old friends Fredward Benson and Shane from Seattle Ridgeway.

Freddie was sad because he was going to lose Carly. He was surprised that she was going to Quinn's boarding school. _Luckily, the world was so small._

Quinn took Freddie into her arms like a little brother or cousin. "I will keep good care of her, and I may serve her as a technical producer."

Freddie sighed.

"I know, that's not the same." Quinn sobbed. "But it's all we can do."

Freddie nodded sadly. Little did he know there was a deeper plot at the bottom of all those coincidences.

* * *

**Chapter 4 Another Fall**

* * *

**Time** Beginning of the New Year at the Pacific Coast Academy

**Place** 101 Butler Hall

**People** Quinn Pensky (later) , Spencer Shay (later), Carly Shay (later), Lola Martinez, Shelby Marx, Vivian Marx, Logan Reese (later)

Lola sighed with relief when she entered 101 Butler Hall. _It was the room where Zoey had resided before Lola had made it to the Pacific Coast Academy._

Shelby and Vivian followed Lola tightly. Both of the Marx sisters[18] looked pretty similar to Lola, and they could be easily confused.

Lola showed them the facilities of the rooms here.

Vivian chose the top bunk, while Sheleby preferred the bottom bunk.

Lola grinned. She wanted to meet her beloved Vince Blake as soon as possible. On the other hand, she needed to avoid an encounter with her nemesis and upcoming sister in law, Ashley Blake. _Who knew what Ashley's perverted brain might have come up with in order to tear Lola and Vince asunder?_ In addition, Lola would have liked to know about the roomie of her cousins. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait for too long in order to get an answer to her burning question.

"Lola!" Quinn's voice boomed from beyond the door which was almost closed.

Lola opened the door and screamed when she noticed her roomie. "Hey! I'm just helping my cousins!"

Quinn grinned. "Well, I'm also helping some people ... this is Carly Shay, the girlfriend of an old comrade of mine."

Carly pouted. "I'm not Freddie's girlfriend!" She bellowed.

Quinn shrugged with her shoulders. "Whatever ..."

Lola's cousins shook Carly's hand. _It was nice to meet her._ They had occasionally viewed Carly's webshow. They were disappointed because Carly had denied that she was Freddie's girl, because both of the Marx twins would have fancied them a cute couple.

Spencer had almost been lost on his way across the hall, but he finally reached 101, stumbling upon the door step because he was carrying Carly's suitcases.

"Er ... and this is my adult brother, Spencer!" Carly grinned when she started caring about her luggage.

The other girls seized Spencer with their drilling gazes, and they whistled a merry tune.

Spencer enjoyed the attention that he had attracted.

Quinn shrugged. "OK, I have to go to my own dorm and take care of my own luggage. So you want to know what ..."

Lola begged the others to shake their heads. "We better don't want to know ..."

Quinn pouted with disappointment. She shrugged and called Logan. She hadn't understood her separation from Logan during the summer as a definite break-up, just as a pause, and she needed to make up with him again. _Alas, Logan didn't reply._ Quinn concluded that he had forgotten to activate his cellular phone properly ... _Boys and technology simply didn't match, except in the case of Freddie and Shane._ Quinn sighed helplessly, and she decided to look for Logan in his dorm, wherever that was. In order to waste no time, she jumped through the open window. "See you later in our dorm!" She waved especially at Lola.

The other girls shrugged.

"Your show will be discontinued?" wondered Shelby.

Carly dared to shake her head. "I will try to take it up again, here on the campus. Quinn is my technical producer ..."

The other girls deemed this cool.

Spencer gave Carly another suitcase. "Ms. Benson told me to give you these supplies ... poultices, bandages, and other stuff you will need here."

Carly sighed in an annoyed manner. "Ms. Benson is our neightbour in Seattle, Freddie's mom. She's terribly protective ..."

Shelby shrugged. "He's hot, but a weakling." She shuddered with disgust.

Spencer waved. "OK, Carly, Quinn, let's meet in your sushi bar. I love sushi!"

Carly smiled at Spencer. "OK, later, bro!"

"OK ..." Lola grinned mischievously. "A web show is something like TV, just on the computer, right?"

Carly scratched her head. "I think so ..."

"And many people watch it?" Lola grinned.

"I sure hope so!" Carly smiled. "Once we had got quite some bunch of viewers ..."

Lola beamed. "Then I want to be the co-modulator!"

"Erm," Spencer dared to interruptm "I think what Carly really needs is a co-moderator!" He scratched his head. Had he really said something smart? He couldn't believe it.

"Whatever ..." Lola shrugged helplessly.

Carly nodded. "But of course! As you are Quinn's best friend, it will be a great idea to have you as a co-mod!"

Lola cheered and bounced around, being happy about the prospects of being seen by many many many people, which was going to increase her popularity and hence her chances to land a major coup at Hollywood.

Logan Reese showed up in the door. "No Quinn?"

"She's already looking for you ... you must have missed her!" Lola grinned.

Logan coughed. "Whatever, there are other girls on the campus." He grinned seductively at Shelby. "Hey, cutiedoll! How about a lesson in kissing?"

Lola could have done something very very bad to Logan. _He wasn't supposed to hit on her cousins!_

"Sure!" Shelby grinned viciously.

"OK, baby!" Logan smiled and grabbed Shelby's shoulders in order to pull her closer.

Shelby threw her arms around Logan's waist. Then she grabbed him tighter.

Logan had been expecting a passionate kiss, _but what was that_? He felt Shelby grabbing his thighs from behind, and he felt lifted up. "Hey! What the ..." He squealed with dismay. But before he could say anything intelligible, he found himself being flung across the room, right into the waste paper basket.

Lola applauded for her cousin. "Good, Shelby!"

Grinning sadistically at consternated Logan Reese, Shelby nodded solemnly. "OK, Lola, did you say he wants to become a martial?"

Lola chuckled. "A pro wrestler or a model!"

Shelby shrugged. "He will have a hard time as a wrestler!"

Lola agreed.

Logan grumbled with shame.

Vivian stepped up to Logan. "Really? A model?"

Logan nodded while wiping some blood from his face.

Vivian cared tenderly for Logan's wounds. "Shelby!" She scolded her twin. "How may you dare to hurt the face of an upcoming super model?"

Logan moaned with pleasure when Vivian patched one of his wounds with a poultice that Carly had given him.

"So, Logan, if you really want, I may talk to my agency," offered Vivian. "Maybe we can model together!"

"Why not?" Logan grinned enigmatically.

"You're ideal as a model for modern leisure fashion!" Vivian grinned.

"Hah!" bellowed Logan. "I so knew it!" He clenched his fist and sent it aloft.

Quinn came along. "Logan? What are you doing in her arms?" She couldn't yet tell Vivian from Shelby.

"Whose arms?" Logan feigned total innocence.

Quinn pouted. "Ah, forget it!" She was angry and walked out on the crowd once more.

Lola followed Quinn, and both of the senior girls were bound for 101 Brenner Hall.

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Quinn Pensky, Lola Martinez, Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks

When Lola and Quinn entered their dorm, Dustin was just done helping Zoey with her luggage.

Quinn's face still exposed the concentrated anger caused by Logan's flirt with Vivian.

Zoey huggled Dustin. "OK, I'm going to help you as well with your luggage!"

Dustin smiled. "Love you, sis!"

Quinn talked about Logan and Vivian.

"Are you done with Logan?" Zoey grinned. _This would have served Quinn well. Nobody was treating Dustin like dirt without paying dearly!_

Quinn glared sternly at Zoey. "Hey! I'm not going to give up that fast! If that Marx bitch wants war, it means war!"

Lola sighed. She should have defended her cousin Vivian, but she didn't know what to say. _And in no case should Quinn strike at Shelby, just because it was totally easy to confuse them!_

Zoey sighed. _But maybe this meant that Quinn was going to hurt herself badly in the process. She had really deserved it._

Finally, Lola talked about Carly Shay being Shelby's and Vivian's roomie, and about her task as a co-moronator.

"Carly Shay? Really?" Zoey was excited. She hoped that Carly's grandfather was going to help her solve the enigmatic statements she had found in the citetitlelet from mystery man Mr. Takato. "Is her grampa with her?"

Quinn shook her head. "No way! Spencer and I are with her."

Zoey wondered about Spencer.

"Carly's elder brother!" Dustin beamed because he knew it better.

Zoey sighed with disappointment. _Instead of a valuable witness, there was that one useless guy who had been deemed unable to care for his little sister. What a freak!_ Alas, Zoey was not quite at ease. She was soo going to turn eighteen, and then she wanted to assume guardianship over Dustin. She had assumed this totally easy, given that she had somewhat been a substitute mom for Dustin during the last years. But now she was disappointed. Alas, she needed to contact Carly and try to get hold of the old man, anyways ... _before it was too late_.

Dustin's heart started beating at quadruple speed. _Carly Shay. She was such a cutie, and incredibly sweet and hot and clever and totally awesome, anyways. Of course he had to accompany Zoey when she was going to see Carly, although he did not understand the reasons for that._

Zoey shook her head. "Dustin! I'm able to find my way on my own!"

Dustin looked disappointed.

Zoey noticed that Dustin's skin had changed colour, and his posture was strange. "Is something wrong with you?"

Dustin felt butterflies in his stomach. "Why?"

Lola remarked that Dustin had looked rather strange since she had mentioned Carly Shay. She giggled enigmatically.

Zoey understood the hint. _It wasn't implausible that Dustin had a crush on Carly, but, as a loving and caring elder sister, she wanted to save him from what might be the hardest disappointment in his young emotional life._ "Dustin, you may accompany me to Carly, but, listen ..." She needed to tell it to him in a way that didn't scare him. "Carly is really popular if she has such a great web show. Many boys will long for her as you do. But she can't like everyone back the way they like her. Do you catch my draft?" She petted Dustin's cheeks.

Dustin sobbed and nodded.

"I really hope for you that you land the great blow," assured Zoey, "but it is not very likely. You understand me? She's probably a nice girl and will be glad about each nice fan she has got, but that doesn't mean that she is able to return your feelings in kind."

Dustin moaned sadly.

"Don't you want to see Chase?" asked Lola.

Zoey felt like being hit by a nuclear blast. She couldn't but stammer. "Sorry ... " She sobbed. "It's all roger and over ..."

Lola and Quinn looked consternated.

Dustin tried to explain the situation as well as he could: Colin, James, the espionage, ...

Lola and Quinn understood that their mutual confidence was severely broken.

But they wanted to try to stay friends.

They agreed with Zoey when she expressed her wish to be careful with Chase. _Bothering him too much wasn't doing their friendship any good._

* * *

**Place** 148 Maxwell Hall

**People** Logan Reese, Chase Matthews, Michael Barret

Logan, Michael, and Chase were accomodated, once again, in 148 Maxwell, just as in their sophomore year, until Chase had left for London. They had already figured that James had been redirected to 150 Maxwell, where he was going to share a dorm with his friends Mark del Figgalo and Vincent Blake.

Michael and Chase laughed their jaws loose when they heard Logan's story about his encounter with Shelby and Vivian Marx.

"My motto ..." Michael grinned, dumbfounding his roomies. "Never flirt with a wrestling chick!"

Logan moaned. "That chick has really got the hang out of it!" Being a reckless jerk, he smiled, inspite of having been hurt badly by Shelby, and he took it as a confirmation of his hotness. "But now, Quinn is jealous!"

"As she should be!" Michael shrugged. Then he asked Chase about his vacations, especially his holidays on Maui.

Chase sighed and told his story.

Michael couldn't believe it. _Was that really Chase Bartholomew Matthews, his best friend for over five years? Could he have known him that poorly?_ He sighed deeply.

But Chase confirmed that it had been true, and that it was all Colin's fault.

Michael didn't get it. _Why, in seven devils' names, had Chase listened to some arbitrary, hitherto unbeknownst guy? That was inasane!_ He grabbed his clackers and started clackering crazily while affirming that he was the only normal person in this dorm.

* * *

**Place** 150 Maxwell Hall

**People** Vincent Blake, Mark Del Figgalo, Ashley Blake, James Garrett, Lola Martinez (later)

James Garrett was just done talking about his vacations where he had worked for his uncle Hank[19] who had just acquired a new shop.

Vince grinned. "I've tried out for the LAkers, that was a lot of fun!"

Ashley, the little sister of Vince, had been standing next to him and watching him getting his luggage done. As an arrogant diva, she refused to help him. But she made sarcastic remarks about James and Mark. "The LAkers will be so sorry if they reject Vince!"

Vince chuckled. "I'd just have to continue trying out ... oh, and Ashley will be a guest star in the next episode of Ohio Highschool Soap[20] , next Saturday night."

"Cool!" James smiled. "I want to see it!" He didn't care about being treated like dirt by the diva.

Ashley grinned. "Someone should polish Del Figgalo's face! It looks really barbaric!"

Mark moaned.

Along came Lola Martinez. "Hi sweetheart!" She bent over in order to receive Vince's kiss when she was consternated. She had really tried to avoid an encounter with Ashley, her worst competitor since she had come to Hollywood. _Why did she have to be Vince's sister?_ She launched a frosty glaze at Ashley.

Staying totally calm, Ashley replied Lola's posture in an equally icy manner.

Vince felt the chill in the air, and he had to grab a blanket and wrap himself into it in order to avoid freezing.

James didn't understand. "Hi Lola? I'm glad to see you, too?" He shrugged. _This wasn't conforming to Lola's usual habits._

Del Figgalo watched the whole thing apathetically. "Hi Lola!" He yawned.

Vince wasn't quite surporised. He had known that the encounters of Lola and Ashley were conflict-laden. "OK, Ashley, we may get back to your dorm."

Ashley nodded.

Lola was dismayed. _She had been waiting so long, and Vince still needed to help Ashley getting her things done? That wasn't fair, it was totally creepy!_ She shuddered with disgust.

Vince shrugged. "Ashley may only sleep in the single bed. Alas, when we made it to her dorm for the first time, it was already occupied by some Megan Parker who had left a label and her luggage on the single bed. We need to talk her into changing that."

Lola sighed bitterly.

Unbeknownst to Vince, Ashley knew Megan very well.

Lola didn't want to follow Ashley around, but Vince grabbed her impulsively, so she had no choice but following him and that obnoxious pest of his little sister. She moaned with despair as she anticipated a whole host of additional terror and disgust ...

* * *

**Chapter 5 Another Fall(cont.)**

* * *

**Place** Dustin's Dorm

**People** Scooter, Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Dustin Brooks (later), Zoey Brooks (later)

Scooter, aka Robert Carmichael, explained the facilities of his dorm unto Drake and Megan. "My roomie should be here any other minute!"

Drake yawned.

Megan shrugged. "May I hide some bugs in his bed?" She grinned sadistically.

Scooter shivered.

All of a sudden, Dustin and Zoey walked in through the door.

Scooter greeted his roomie heartily.

Drake wondered. "Zoey?" He had given a concert at the Pacific Coast Academy, it had been four years. But he hadn't been able to scratch ocverwhelmimg Zoey from his memory. He still remembered the cute blonde who had been organising his concert.

"Drake Parker!" Zoey's heart dropped down to her knees. She was a huge fan of him. "Are you up to a new concert?"

"Probably!" Drake shrugged, then he hugged Zoey. He hoped to be able to extend the hug into a smooching session. "I'm the new adviser of your school's band?"

Zoey grinned. Alas, she didn't feel comfortable. _Drake was known as a reckless jerk, maybe even worse than Logan Reese._ Zoey wasn't interested in that kind of boys. She poked him in the stomach when he didn't break the hug.

Megan grinned when she noticed Zoey's resistance. She knew very well that not many girls had the guts to turn down Drake, although they should have done so. Megan had also taken a look at Dustin. _He was really sweet, totally not a boob._ Being ashamed of being Drake's little sister, she commanded Zoey: "Take that jerk away! I've never seen him before!"

Dustin was consternated because he thought of Megan as Carly. He softly mumbled something about Carly Shay.

Megan concluded immediately that Dustin had a fan crush on her cousin, and that he confused her. She tried to abuse that and threw her arms around Dustin, taking him by surprise.

Dustin purred softly. His heart was about melting into a puddle of goo.

Zoey was consternated. _That went a bit too fast! Maybe there was something fishy._ Anyways, she needed to talk to Carly in order to contact Grandpa Shay. "OK, Ms. Shay, I've heard several great things about your grandpa, the great alumnus of the PCA from the fifties."

Megan choked. _Of course, due to being Carly's cousin, they had got one grandpa in common, but it was not the guy Zoey was apparently talking about, he must have been form the other side of the family._ She sighed. _Zoey wasn't one girl to fool, or else she wouldn't have resisted Drake's assault upon her honour. In addition, Dustin wasn't a boy to citetitle with._ "OK, Dustin, I know that you want Carly, but I'm really Megan Parker, Carly's cousin." She sighed bitterly.

Dustin was disappointed.

Zoey took it easy. She just had to wait a little longer.

Megan moaned because she had now admitted to being Drake's little sister.

Robbie comforted Dustin. "Come on, I'm sure Megan will help you to get her cousin ..."

Megan looked dumbfounded, but ... "OK, sure thing!" She grinned. "This sounded like quite some challenge that only one cunning schemer was up to."

Drake was disappointed. _He, California's best kisser, hadn't been turned down by any girl in quite some time._

Zoey helped Dustin getting his luggage done.

Dustin talked to Drake. "Sorry, I've slept through your last concert. Quinn had prevented me from sleeping for several days."

Drake sighed. "OK, you'll soon get to hear me again."

Megan moaned with disgust. She liked Drake's music, but she was sometimes fed up with it. But now she needed to get to her dorm.

Zoey and Dustin agreed with Megan on meeting in the cafeteria for lunch. Maybe they were going to see Carly ...

* * *

**Place** Ashley's and Megan's Dorm

**People** Ashley Blake, Vince Blake, Lola Martinez, Drake Parker (later), Megan Parker (later)

Vince, Ashley, and Lola had just made it to Ashley's dorm.

"You will help my sister with her luggage, right, sweetie?" Vince kissed Lola's temples.

"Er ..." Lola somewhat enjoyed the kiss, but Vince's command made her shudder with disgust. "Right!" She shrugged as she was like under a spell and could not contradict Vince. She moaned with discomfort when she started helping Ashley, or, rather, doing all of her work.

Ashley just sat down on some beanbag and grinned sadistically while watching Lola.

In this moment, Drake and Megan bounded in.

Lola was flabbergasted. _Wasn't that rock star Drake Parker, the hottest being in the whole universe?_

Ashley greeted Megan. They had encountered like four years ago. Ashley had tried to help Megan pulling a vicious prank on those worthless boobs, but she had fallen victim to her own prank.

Megan grinned.

Alas, Ashley wasn't pleased because Megan had claimed the single bed. "I need the single bed!"

Megan choked. She wasn't ready to budge. "Forget it!"

Vince growled at Megan.

"Don't growl at my sister!" Drake was really upset. "Or else ..." He prepared for teaching Vince a lesson ... the hard way.

Vince coughed. _Did Drake not recognise that Vince was the captain of the football team?_ Vince hadn't beaten up anyone in over a year, but this was going to be self-defense. And he had to defend Ashley's honour.

Megan had read about Vince. "Drake, please don't ..."

Alas, Drake conveniently ignored Megan's attempt of a warning. He grabbed Vince and pushed him against the wall. "Tell Ashley to stick to some bunk bed!"

Vince's lightening reflexes made him retaliate and knock Drake into the opposite corner.

Drake whimpered painfully.

Megan was consternated. She knew that Drake had deserved it, even if he had just been sticking up for her, but she wanted to be sure that Drake wasn't bleeding or bruised. "Are you OK, bro?" She didn't notice anything bad.

Alas, Lola was even more consternated. She screamed like a fury. _How could Vince dare to hurt someone as hot as Drake Parker, the best kisser of the universe?_ She jumped towards Drake and inspected his potential injuries. Then she helped him up again.

Fits of jealousy seized control over Vince, but he achieved shrugging them off, at least for the time being. Then he helped Drake, too. He didn't want to hurt him on purpose.

Drake was obviously OK.

Lola suggested to cast dice in order to decide on the single bed. She remembered a similar collision between Logan's and Michael's interests[21] .

Ashley and Megan nodded, albeit grudgingly.

* * *

**Place** Cafeteria of the Pacific Coast Academy

**People** Vincent Blake, Ashley Blake, Spencer Shay (later), Carly Shay (later), Quinn Pensky (later), Shelby Marx (starts background), Melanie Puckett (starts background), Vivian Marx (later), Lola Martinez (later), Dustin Brooks (later), Zoey Brooks (later), Scooter (later), Drake Parker (later), Megan Parker (later), many anonymous pupils and cafeteria staff (background)

Vince sighed. He didn't know what to make of Lola's scene. _As he entered the cafeteria, Lola was still in her hall, because she needed to visit the room for little girls._ He explained for Ashley how the cafeteria worked. "OK, you show them your student card, for otherwise you would have to pay guest prices. Those are sometimes more than twice as much, especially soft drinks."

Ashley nodded. Alas, she was a celebrity, hence she wasn't accustomed to waiting like the others. "You don't expect me to wait in the queue? Go and fix my meals. You know what I want!"

Vince sighed. _Yes, he was familiar with Ashley's taste, and he knew that Ashley was a diva. Alas, you could only fix one full meal with your student card._ "OK, but then there are no student discounts ..."

Ashley shrugged. She handed Vince a few bills. She could afford it as she was paid well for her movies.

But they didn't even have to.

As soon as the ignoble mass of pupils recognised Vince and Ashley, they stepped aside and let the stars bypass the queue.

Vince thanked the students, he wouldn't have expected them to do that.

But Ashley took her privilleges for granted, and she walked proudly ahead. Nothing could deter her arrogant stride.

Many students wanted to be on a fotograph with both Ashley and Vince. This would have made them supercool.

Vince and Ashley fixed their meals. Vince had to carry all of them. Then he saw Shelby. Too bad he couldn't yet tell her from Lola.

Ashley shrugged. She could have told Lola from her cousins. But she didn't get to warn Vince. _Damn, was he blind!_

Shelby grinned. She recognised Vince from Lola's descriptions, but she decided to stay calm.

Vince assumed automatically that Lola, whom he thought Shelby to be, had reserved places for him and Ashley at her table. Then he bowed down in order to kiss Lola. He had forgotten about the scene with Drake.

Shelby pulled Vince close.

Hugging Shelby, Vince felt her steel-like muscles. He was mightily impressed. _Was that really the same Lola which he had hugged just a few months ago, where he had to be careful to avoid bruising her or bending her fragile bones? Wow, how had she worked out within just a few months?_ He felt slightly dizzy, but he awarded Shelby with a kiss, no matter what.

Finally, Lola was back from the toilets. When she entered the cafeteria, she saw Vince making out with Shelby. She was disgusted. Instead of caring for the repasts, she walked up to Vince and slapped him. She didn't even remotely consider the possibility that Shelby had abused her similarity with Lola in order to trick Vince. "You dirty creep!" Then she walked away.

Vince didn't feel physically hurt by Lola's slap, as she wasn't a hard hitter, but he felt ashamed and confused.

Ashley whispered something into Vincent's ear, trying to clarify the situation as much as possible. But she didn't know Shelby, either.

Shelby cackled with glee.

Drake walked in, giving Megan a piggy back ride.

Vince wanted to run after Lola, but Ashley urged him to calm down. "Lola wasn't worth it!"

Lola bumped into Drake.

Megan glared grimly at Lola.

Lola was ashamed. "Sorry!" But then she had an idea. She could easily use Drake to make Vince jealous, punishing him sternly for his adultery.

Like in Ashley's case, the pupils stepped aside in order to let Drake pass right to the head of the long queue.

Megan waited like the rest. She was expecting Zoey and Dustin to walk in.

Robbie aka Scooter followed the Brooks kids into the cafeteria.

Megan smiled at them. "OK, Carly isn't yet here ..."

Dustin reserved a table for them, anyways. Then he joined the queue with Zoey.

In that moment, they noticed Spencer, Carly, and Quinn approaching the cafeteria.

They had wanted to go to Kazu's Japanese café, but they were locked out as Kazu wasn't going to reopen the bar before the evening hours.

Spencer wondered. "Wow! What a cafeteria!"

Quinn chuckled. "OK, I hope to catch Logan. Woe to him if he makes out with Lola's bitchy cousin!" Quinn fumbled with her wrist watch who still had built-in zappers.

"Yeah, woe to him" Carly grinned schemishly.

Megan yelled. "Carly!"

Carly noticed her cousin. "Megan! Drake!"

Lola's eyes bugged out. "So you are really related to Drake Parker?" She shrugged. _Maybe she should have gone to use Drake in order to make Logan jealous? There was an idea. But Drake was even dumber than Logan. But then she noticed Lola next to Drake. Even after looking thrice, she was sure it was Lola, and not Shelby or Vivian. Quinn knew some secret spot that allowed her to identify Lola. If it had been Vivian, she'd have fired her zappers. But Lola was a problem, too. She was so much more credible with Drake Parker, so Logan might hardly get fooled._

Megan introduced Scooter,Dustin, and Zoey to Carly and Spencer.

Quinn choked. She was not only astonished by Megan's and Carly's similarity. _Spencer had hinted something like that. Dustin's affection towards Carly was even greater than she had dared to fear. And she had promised solemnly unto Freddie to do everything to keep Carly away from other boys. Fortunately, Carly saw in Dustin just one of many other nice fans, although she must have recognised that he was head over heels into Carly._ Quinn sighed with relief.

Megan had feared this to happen. _But hey, she wouldn't have been that little cunning imp if she hadn't been able to fix that. Maybe Dustin could make Carly jealous?_ Megan stepped up to Dustin and whispered something into his ears. _Dustin was interested._ She threw her arms around Dustin right when Carly happened to look into her direction.

Carly coughed and choked. _What a vulture! How could Megan dare to grab Dustin like that? He was Carly's fan, not Megan's. And Dustin didn't even object, down to surprise. That was not fair!_ "Er, Megan, you ..." Carly almost exploded for jealousy.

Megan grinned. _Carly was so easy to trick._

Carly was close to asking Dustin out, but she didn't want to make it that obvious.

Zoey understood very fast what Megan was going to try. _Was it fair? Maybe! Maybe not! Should she have cared? Probably not!_

They had fixed their repasts and returned to the tables.

Zoey knew that she had to talk to Carly, and even Spencer. _It was her chance, now or never!_ She asked Spencer about their grandpa, an alumnus of the PCA.

Carly was astonished. She had not known about it. "Really?"

Spencer nodded silently.

"I need to contact him," admitted Zoey. "An old family thingy ..." _For the time being, it wasn't possible to talk about the prophecies._

Spencer and Carly nodded unison.

Indeed, old Mr. Shay was supposed to come to the school in a few weeks for some encounter of alumni, and in order to visit Carly, of course.

Zoey smiled. _That was too cool to be true._

Quinn didn't find Logan. A few days later, she was going to know that Logan had ordered food from Vacaro's[22] via credit card. However, she spotted Vivian in the background, unless Lola had got even more identical relatives. Quinn concluded that Logan was not about making out with her, thus she sighed with relief.

They had their repasts.

Being done, Carly moved closer to Dustin. "Do you want to watch a movie with me?"

Dustin beamed like a supernova. "Sure!"

Carly grinned because she thought she had punished Megan duly.

Mega chuckled silently. Her plan had come along nicely.

Quinn was consternated. _Was Dustin going to steal Freddie's girl? That was so wrong!_

Zoey grinned. _That was going to serve Quinn well! She was so going to pay for abusing Dustin._

Carly smiled at Dustin, but she noticed a girl that had kept on glaring at her since she had started talking to Dustin. _Was that possible? Sam? She certainly looked like that, with her long. wavy, dark blond hair._ She yelled. "Sam?"

The dark blonde choked. "My name is Melanie Puckett! You must confuse me with my monocygotic twin sister, Samantha!"

Carly sighed. "Probably! Sam is my best friend!" _Alas, this didn't explain why Melanie glared at Dustin and Carly_

Melanie sighed. "OK, long story. See you afterwards!"

Zoey moaned. _Melanie, or, better, Trisha Kirby_[_23_]_ ... she had come a long way from a really bad girl to a nice and sweet one. Her own help had effected a lot, but why had she gone through that trouble instead of ending up like that beast named Samantha? That was so hard to understand, but what wasn't? For certain, there were still many things left to explore. The little citetitle, of course, was of uttermost priority._

* * *

**Chapter 6 School Annals**

* * *

**Time** End of the first week of the school year

**Place** Harry Schneider Library, some lolely corner

**People** Zoey Brooks

Zoey had been spending at least one hour each day in the school's main library in order to search for hints. _The yearcitetitles were well sorted by year, one next to each other. This should not have been a problem, should it? But why was there one of them missing, that from the year of 1955? OK, it may be random that someone borrowed it. Don't worry, many pupils had relatives who had studied at the PCA long ago, and they were interested about their life and time at PCA. That was only natural._ Zoey had taken a few of the citetitles to a nearby table and started reading. She was pareticularly interested in finding out about Grandpa Shay. She imagined him as one shining example of classic chivalry. _What a man! Too bad that was some fifty years ago. And he's punished with such a poor excuse of a grandson who is unable to care appropriately for his poor younger sister._ Zoey studied one of the citetitles, page for page. _And there he was: Abe Shay, right on all honour rolls! Zoey smiled when she continued reading the citetitle. Alas, one sheet appeared to be missing!_ She sighed. _That was really strange. But it may happen, for sure. The citetitles had been lurking around here for more than half of a century. But, hey, upon closer inspection, the sheet appeared to have been cut out neatly, certainly not ripped by hand or crumbled to dust or eaten by citetitleworms. It may have been done by someone who was so addicted to that one page ... or it may have been a deliberate attempt to veil and hide away some scandalous stuff. But who would have done that? And why? Question after question ..._ Zoey was now tired. _The lecture of the citetitles had cleared up a few nicknames in the citetitle. But it had also given raise to more and more questions._ Fortunately, Zoey was more and more aware of what to ask Carly's grandfather.

* * *

**Place** The Lounge of Brenner Hall.

**People** Zoey brooks, Megan Parker, many anonymous students (background), Quinn pensky (later), Lola Martinez (later)

Zoey entered her lounge, whistling innocently. She stumbled almost carelessly into Megan Parker.

There she is! Megan grinned. "Hi, Zoey!"

Zoey was a bit dizzy, but she recovered immediately. "Oh, Megan! I suppose you did a great job, getting Carly to like Dustin back by making her jealous." She smiled.

Wow! Zoey was good, she actually noticed it! She's really nobody for Drake to even dare to mess with, as was to be feared.. Megan whistled innocently. "What if I did?"

"You're one tricky cunner ..." Zoey grinned.

Megan smiled. Now, that had been flattering! "OK, Zoey! Yeah, it was a trick. Ashley taught it tome, a few years back ... Well ..." She switched to whispering, for not everyone was supposed to hear it. "See, Carly apparently likes hot, tall guys, like many teenage girls, most of them, to be exact ..."

James had been tall and hot, yeah, so Zoey could hardly excempt herself. But never again ... Zoey nodded.

Negan sighed. "I used to be like this. My first boyfriend was some Corey[24] . Truth said, I wanted rather his Japanese candy than him. Nevertheless, it turned out that he was cheating on me, all the time. Now I'll never do that again. "

Zoey nodded solemnly. "Yeah, don't repeat the same mistake over and over!"

Megan grinned. "On the other hand, I know that Dustin would never do the same things as Corey did. he'll never disappoint my cousin!"

Zoey agreed wholeheartedly. "Dustin believes strongly in loyality and faithful demeanour."

Megan nodded. "Robbie told me ... Scooter, if you know him better by that name! "

Zoey shrugged. "Whatever. At some point, he wanted to learn from Logan how to become a reckless jerk like him. But he understood fast that this was foul and disgusting, and unfair to the core.[25] "

"Logan is so going to rue it! Abusing Dustin and stuff!" declared Megan.

Zoey nodded solemnly. "He will!" She high-fived with Megan.

"So, what have you been spying in the library? The history of the school?" Megan was really direct. _Now, that had been dary. But it had to be._

Zoey was astonished. "The history? What are you talking about?"

Megan grinned. "You're very interested in Carly's grandpa, the one who isn't mine, that is ..."

Zoey sighed. _Megan had noticed that, wow! Extreme care was advised!_ "Yeah, that's right!"

Megan smiled. "I'm sure there are many hidden secrets in the history of this school!"

Zoey nodded timidly. "Maybe ... I mean ... sure!" She grinned astutely.

Megan grinned. "Well, before I came to this school, I had a dream about a prince on his white steed that was going to come and ..." She started swooning. "Like a king that had been disappeared a long time ago, and was returning from oblivion in order to assume his rightful powers."

Zoey coughed. _Should Megan be informed about the small citetitle filled with fatidic verses? That was not an easy situation. But Megan was definitely nobody to fool around with, so better fessing up right now._ Zoey sighed. "OK, Megan, things are like this: I've found a citetitle containing messages about the past and future of the Pacific Coast Academy. A really scary and mysterious citetitle. It talks about imposters and the true heir, the hero of the past and the hero of the times to come, mounted on his white steed, creeping proudly through the morning mist ..."

Megan was almost flabbergasted. "That was like in my dream!"

Zoey's heart beat faster. "But if it's all referring to someone who disappeared decades ago, it will be some old bonehead, certainly not a young prince that ..." She couldn't make too much sense of it.

Megan shrugged. "Mysteries are not meant to be easy to be understood!"

Zoey would have liked to continue talking to Megan about that problem, but, unfortunately ...

Quinn and Lola stumbled along, apparently at each other's throat.

Oh no, not again those poor excuses of roomies! Who needs enemies with roomies like these? That's worse than Nicole and Dana in their best days!Zoey stepped inbetween Lola and Quinn. "Hey! Stop bickering!"

"Why should I?" thundered Quinn, her eyes sprakling with anger and jealousy. "Lola's cousin is about stealing my sweetheart!"

"If you're lucky!" remarked Zoey.

Quinn glared grimly at Zoey. _Wasn't it enough that Zoey's little brother was lusting for Carly and trying to steal her from Freddie? She had solemnly promised unto her pal to keep good care of his should-be-girlfriend! It was not up to Zoey meddling with her tasks._

Lola coughed. "I didn't talk Vivian into enrolling here! Mom did!"

As if that made a difference! "Lola! Shut up!"

"Should I remind you that my other cousin, Shelby, is about stealing my fiancé? " remarked Lola.

"That's your problem, not mine," thundered Quinn. She was close to using her zappers in order to burn a hole into Lola's cloth.

Zoey grabbed Quinn. "Stop it! You're insane!"

Quinn fired her zappers at Zoey, hurting her severely.

Megan grabbed the fire extinguisher and aimed it at Quinn. "Leave her in peace!"

Quinn grumbled and disappeared. "I'm going to move in with Lisa Perkins!"

Zoey coughed. _Lisa was very upset at Michael because he still talked about Mr. Takato. There was probably a lot to that mystery guy, but it was impossible to tell anyone why and how. But Michael didn't deserve to be treated like dirt by Lisa, just because she refused to believe that there were things between the skies and the earth that did not fit into her pragmatic world view._

Both Megan and Zoey had gone too tired to continue talking about the strange things that had been and that will come to their school.

* * *

**Time** The day after

**Place** Carly's Lounge

**People** Carly Shay, Dustin Brooks, many other pupils (background)

Carly had been waiting in her lounge for a few minutes. Yeah, there's Dustin! She smiled when she saw him coming. They had now been sort of a couple for almost a week, and Carly didn't have any reason to regret her audacious decision. Dustin wasn't obnoxious like Fredward Benson, or spazzy like Nevel Papperman,or a plain insane stalker like Mandy Valdez[26] , or a flattering skunkbag like Valerie[27] , and, best of all, he was not a ruthless heartbreaker like Jake Crendle. But he was smart, sweet, and soft at the same time. And a lot of fun was he, not to forget! "Hi Dustin!"

"Hi cutie!" Dustin smiled at Carly. "You're looking forward to your first web show from the campus of the Pacific Coast Academy, don't you?"

Carly and Dustin sat down.

Carly nodded anxiously. "I'm so excited!" She couldn't hide it.

Dustin sighed. "Alas, Lola and Quinn don't seem to get along well, because of Lola's cousins."

"It's so much like Freddie and Sam ..." Carly moaned and coughed. "OK, it is a lot worse. And Vivian and Shelby are my roomies, which adds a lot of complication!"

Dustin sighed. "Are you mad at your roomies?"

Carly shook her head. "They are endowed to have their own taste for boys, whether Quinn and Lola approve of it or not!"

Dustin agreed. "Melanie had once poisoned my brain, until she switched, without a reason, to Chase. That hurt me a lot. It's hard to forgive that. I don't hate her, though."

"If you hadn't told me about Melanie's past, or Trisha, as you call her, I wouldn't believe that she's Sam's monocygotic twin, their external similarity notwithstanding."

Dustin nodded. "When I saw Sam first, on the web, I was flabbergasted. And she really reminded me of Melanie. But why do Sam and Freddie bicker that much?"

"Nobody knows. They really shouldn't." Carly moaned with despair.

Dustin sighed. "The show would have been so much better if they got along. Erm ..." _Ouch, had he just said that the show used to be not that good?_

Carly understood what Dustin meant. "Even I had my troubles with Sam, and with Freddie. But with the current twists involving my roomies, and Lola, and Quinn, I fee like moving from a flickering spark to a wildfire. I wish that you could be with me during the show." She leant her head against Dustin. She knew that he wasn't going to abuse her temporary need for comfort and affection in manners as shameless and disgusting as those of Fredward Benson. _And Ben Hoopsher_[_28_]_ , her first lover, had been even worse._

Dustin sighed. "OK, I won't leave you alone in there, although I know that Mandy caused you a lot of trouble."

Carly nodded. "Mandy was very noisy. But you would help me best by just sitting silently in the background."

Dustin smiled. "You have once mentioned some Jake Crendle ..."

Carly nodded. "He was tall and blond and hot, and ..."

Dustin had to think about Zoey's ex-boyfriend James Garrett. "The girls must have swarmed around him."

"Too true!" Carly sighed. "But he went back to his busty blonde, and, after just a few days later, was never seen again in Seattle, at least ... not at my school."

"My sister once had a boyfriend that looked similar to your Jake. His name was James. But he had been hired by her other boyfriend, Chase Matthews, in order to taste her faithfulness."

Carly coughed. "Oh my god! Some boys are really braindead!"

Dustin sighed. "Both James and Chase had been my friends, though. I still don't get it." He fumbled with his pockets. "A picture of James ..."

"Oh my dear!" screamed Carly. "That must be Jake, or some close relative of his!"

Dustin choked. "That would be really gross ..." He trembled. _Where was James floating about, anyways? He hasn't been seen since ... prom night ... and very briefly at the beginning of the academic year. That was so scary!_

"What if Jake is James, and he has been hired by someone in order to test me?" Carly looked consternated at Dustin.

_That was so scary, downright creepy. Should Zoey know about it? But she wanted to forget about James, and bothering her with that stuff wasn't going to make her any happier._ Dustin trembled. "I'm afraid."

Carly sighed. _Dustin may have started out as a nice random fan. But now he had become much more, as if welded together by destiny. He was more and more the anchor in Carly's life, and vice versa._

"So, Zoey takes well care of you?" asked Carly, trying to forget about Jake.

Dustin nodded. "But she's pretty much overprotective."

"If Spencer was a bit more like Zoey, he would be the best elder brother in the world." Carly sighed deeply. "Then again, in that case, I wouldn't sit here with you."

Dustin and Carly smiled. But they had no clue concerning the things that had been at the PCA and the things that were about to come.

* * *

**Chapter 7 Who Is James?**

* * *

**Time** Monday Second Week of the new term

**Place** Lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Lola Martinez, Vince Blake (later), Stacey Dillsen (later), Dustin Brooks (phone), many anonymous students (background)

Zoey and Lola were waiting in the lounge.

Lola was standing. _Where was Vince? He wasn't about making out with Shelby? That would be so bad. My cousin is a mean man thief!_

Zoey sighed. She had not seen James since her prom. "And he was really in 150 Maxwell when you came to visit Vince at the start of the year?"

Lola nodded anxiously.

Vince bounded in, making Lola smile. Then he kissed the left angle of her mouth. "You're not Shelby?"

Lola choked. "You kiss me first, and then wonder whether I'm the right girl?" She pouted.

Vince grinned. "Hey, it was a joke!"

"OK, Vince," asked Zoey, "James is your roomie for this year, isn't he?"

Vince shrugged. "Officially, yes, but I haven't seen him since I went to Ashley's dorm."

Zoey went almost pale. _So Dustin was not wrong with his suspicions._ "So he may have ... disappeared? As fast as he had come?"

Vince shrugged. "See, when James appeared at thi school, I was still suspended. But, judging according to Michael's and Logan's words, it was exactly as you said it: He was gone as fast as he had come."

Zoey choked. "Dustin told me that he had seen James once, side by side with Stacey Dillsen, a year before he came officially to the PCA. He listened to the name Denny. And the name Chase had mentioned. But nobody else had seen him."

Vince shrugged. "Ask Stacey?"

Zoey shuddered with disgust. "I'll probably have to. Thanks, anyways!"

"No problem!" Vince smiled when he grabbed Lola, and he walked away with her.

"Have fun with the web show!" Zoey yelled after Lola. _Carly's show ... and what if Dustin was right, and Carly's former crush, Jake Crendle, was the same as James and Denifer? He came, he saw, he won, but then he disappeared at the speed of light, leaving no trace? That was scary, oh so scary! But there was an idea ..._ Zoey took her cellular phone, and typed Dustin's number. "Hi bro, it's Zoey ... " She turned the phone aloud.

"Zoey!"

Zoey sighed. "OK, bro, it seems that you're right: James appears to be one who comes and leaves, and it makes total sense that he's the same as Carly's Jake who disappeared equally fast!"

"I always knew it, sis!"

"Cool, you're a good bro," replied Zoey, "my idea is ... you could use the webshow in order to search for James, or whatever his name could be!"

"OK, I'll tell Carly! See you, sis!"

"Bye, bro!" Zoey terminated the call. She saw Stacey creeping into the lounge. "Hey! Stacey"

Stacey lisped: "Hi Zoey! Look at my sculpture of the oblique tower of Pisa, it is made of cotton swabs and white glue!"

Zoey wasn't by any stretch interested in that work of art. "OK, Stacey, did you havea boyfriend named Denifer, who looked like James, about two years ago?"

"Boyfriend?" Stacey sobbed angrily. "We haven't even dated for more than a few minutes. He came, we agreed on going to cinema together, and then Dustin appeared and told us that your date was cancelled. So I've broken up with that reckless heartbreaker on site! Having two dates with different girls the same night isn't ok!"

"Listen, Stacey!" Zoey shook her head. "I wasn't appointed with Denifer, it was another Danny, and Dustin got the names mixed up."

Stacey sobbed. "But he dated you the year after, just that he was now called James!"

_So, even Stacey was convinced that James and Denifer were the same person._ "OK, that is true, But I haven't seen him two years ago. It was only last year, and by mere accident."_Random? Really? Was it still possible to believe in random, or was there some massive web of destiny at work? Scary, Oh so scary!_

Stacey started weeping.

Zoey grabbed some handkerchief and wiped Stacey's eyes dry. _Poor Stacey! Three girls, three dates, one boy noone knew from whence he came and where he was bound for. It coud not get any more mysterious._ Zoey shuddered. "Thanks anyways!"

Stacey walked away, smooching with her cotton swab sculpture. She shrugged.

* * *

**Time** same day, 6 p.m.

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Quinn Pensky, Lola Martinez, Carly Shay, Dustin Brooks (later), Samantha Puckett (via webcam), Fredward Benson (via webcam), Zoey Brooks (later), Simon Nelson Cooke (later), Spencer Shay (via webcam), Megan Parker (later)

Quinn fumbled with a few wires. Everything was now rigged and ready for the first iCarly Show from the soil of the Pacific Coast Academy.

Carly's finger clamped the microphone tightly.

Lola just thought about making a good visual impression. She wore thrice as much makeup as usual.

The atmosphere between Lola and Quinn was cold, but not as cold as the one between Lola and Ashley.

"Online in 5...4...3...2," Quinn counted like Fredward Benson.

Dustin slipped right through the door. He threw himself on Zoey's bed and listened silently. He was equally excited.

Quinn was dismayed when she noticed that Dustin was going to spend the session in that dorm. She grunted noisily.

Carly sighed with relief because Dustin had made it in time. "Hi, I'm ..."

"Lola Martinez!" Lola exposed her overdone face proudly to the Webcam. "Hi! I'm your co-motivator!"

Carly was slightly annoyed. "And I'm Carly!" She wiped some sweat from her face. "OK, this is iCarly, but from the Campus of the wonderful Pacific Coast Academy in Malibu, not far from LA!"

Lola interrupted Carly again "I love this school."

Carly moaned. "OK, Lola is my co-moderator,replacing Sam. Likewise, we've got a new technical producer, Quindolyn Pensky!"

Quinn exposed her face, especially her nose, to the webcam she held with her own hands.. "Hi! May you see my brain?" She made the webcam zoom on her nostrils and grinned.

"But you don't have to do completely without my good old Friends Freddie and Sam. Quinn, the chitchat cam!" Carly sweated even more.

Freddie and Sam appeared on a monitor.

Carly greeted her old friends.

Freddie and Sam were excited to know about carly's still young life at the prep school in California.

Carly moaned. "OK, I've got sort of a new boy ... Dustin!"

Dustin waved briefly into the cam.

Freddie's face darkened for anger.

Sam grinned sadistically. "See, Fredweird? As I've told you, Carly will find a boyfriend and forget about you in no time."

Freddie glared angrily at Sam. He started a cupcake battle with her.

Quinn was equally upset. "See what you've done?" She was angry. "And Lola, you aren't any better! Logan is still chatting on and off with that bitch of your cousin!"

"That isn't my falut!" Lola was angry.

"It is!" Quinn pulled at the wires. "Get out of mty room and commit your show elsewhere!"

Lola groaned. "It's my dorm, too!"

Quinn and Lola started wrestling like immature tween girls.

Dustin sighed. "Sorry!"

"It's OK," replied Carly. She moaned bitterly.

Zoey stumbled into the door. "OK, what's going on here? Lola? Quinn?"

Quinn knew that Zoey was about taking Lola's side. She grabbed her laptop and left the building.

Dustin sobbed at Zoey's shoulder.

"No tech producer, no show," concluded Carly.

"Hey! My new tutor for physics and technology might handle that stuff," suggested Dustin.

"Cool!" Carly smiled. "You mean Simon Nelson Cooke?"

Dustin nodded solemnly. "I'm going to fetch him!" He bounded out.

Lola thanked Zoey for intervening.

Carly sighed. "I hope that Freddie and Sam are both gone ..."

"OK, Zoey, now you're here," wondered Carly, "you will talk about the things with James and Jake and Denifer?"

Zoey nodded solemnly.

Dustin and Simon arrived, along with a new laptop.

Simon introduced himself to the girls.

Carly pointed at the wired.

Simon took a look at the lump of wires. "OK, put the green one into the red socket, and the red one into the blue socket ..." He started fumbling with the stuff.

Carly was nervous.

"OK, we'll be there in 10 seconds," announced Cookie.

Carly sighed. "Hi, we're back ... sorry, there was a bit of chaos."

Dustin told Cookie about the chitchat cam.

Cookie nodded. "No problem!" he pushed a few buttons.

Freddie and Sam appeared again, and they were apparently bickering and wrestling.

Spencer also showed up, pulling Freddie and Sam apart. "Hi, viewers!"

Carly beamed. "Spencer!"

Zoey saw that Spencer wore a tie. _The tie is pretty familiar, as if it had been her own ... hey, it was Zoey's own design, just Quinn had helped with the illumination. Where did Spencer have it from? Zoey had never allowed anyone to sell her designs._

Carly declared that noone was entitled to tell her who was her boyfriend, noone whatsoever.

Spencer agreed with Carly, and he scolded Freddie for his brash demeanour.

Sam chuckled.

Carly sighed. "OK, my friend Zoey Brooks has to make an important announce."

Zoey sighed when she took the microphone. "Hi, I'm Zoey Brooks. You've already seen my brother Dustin, I guess, whatever. I need your help. Some pupil from this school, my ex-boyfriend James Garrett ..."

"He's hot and tall and blond and a good kisser," interjected Lola. She beamed brightly.

Zoey was slightly annoyed by Lola's intervention. "OK, that's a picture I've drawn of him." She showed her sketch into the webcam,

Cookie zoomed in on it. "That's as large as we can get!"

Carly nodded. "My friends in Seattle may still know him as Jake Crendle, he is also known as Denifer, other names too, maybe ..."

Spencer choked. "By the way, grandpa will drop by ere the end of next week! Friday night will be his reunion of alumni!"

Freddie and Sam affirmed that he had never been seen at Ridgeway since he had dropped Carly like a piece of glowing iron.

Zoey nodded. "We will be grateful for any hint!" She told everything she knew about the tall blond. "According to my friend Michael Barret, he had lived in Santa Fé, New Mexico, until four years ago. Strange, because New Mexico is not famous for tall blond rakes. OK, whatever ... please, help us!" Zoey dropped down onto her knees when she begged the viewers.

Freddie gave Cookie some technical instructions that were too complicated for average mortals to understand, but no problem for tech freaks. Alas, Freddie was still not feeling well, hence he disappeared without warning.

Sam called Freddeie a weirdo. "OK, there he goes, but please help us, anyways. I know that I should have pushed Jake Crendle down the elevator shaft. Sorry, Zoey!" Sam was glad because Zoey had found good friends really fast. She had also heard that Carly had already seen Melanie, also known as Trisha Kirby, briefly.

Carly sighed because it was time to end the session. "Sorry for that evening chock full of turmoil and dismay. See us next week!"

"Unless you are good kissers," added Lola, "Then you may drop in here any time of the day, seven days a week! Hasta La Vista!"

Cookie terminated the connection. "OK, that was easier than I thought ..."

Carly wondered whether there were already a few messages on thewir splashface account.

Heeding Freddie's instructions, Cookie clicked on the mentioned account. "There it is!" His eyes buggesd out.

"Hundreds of viewers," noted Carly.

Cookie choked. "Now that you say it, I've seen him twice or thrice at my old school![29] "

Carly was excited. "Almost all messages are about Jake, or James. Many different names, or no name at all ..."

Lola looked at her watch. "I'm appointed with Vince! Byebye!" She bounded out.

At the same time, Megan Parker stumbled in. "Tough birth!" She hugged Zoey.

Megan smiled. "Hi Megs!"

Megan grinned. "You won't believe it, but I've seen him too ... now that I've seen the picture, it was so obvious."

Zoey choked. "Really?"

"Do you know the Mystic Mountain?[30] ?"

Zoey nodded. "I've taken a ride on the Spine Twister, last year."

Megan nodded. "Exactly. I've been to the other rollercoaster, the Demonator, with my boob brothers, like three years ago. And while I was waiting in the queue, there was this tall blond rake ... Drake was slightly envious because more girls stared at him than at Drake."

Zoey nodded. "That must be him!"

Dustin beamed. "Cool!"

Zoey felt overwhelmed. _ James was more mysterious than even Mr. Takato. Whether there was a connection between Takato and James? Should there have been? It was scary, horribly scary. Well, according to Spencer's announce, his grandpa was coming for a visit pretty soon. To which extent was that going to help them?_ Zoey trembled.

Megan knew immediately what made Zoey tremble. She wasn't at ease, either. She grabbed Zoey by the wrists and guideed her somewhere else in order to talk about the creepy and scary subject.

Carly thanked Dustin again. "You've helped me a lot, I would hardly have stood through the turmoil."

Dustin sighed. "For you, always and ever ..."

Carly smiled sweetly.

"Oh, Carly, where did Spencer get his socks from? And the ties that he wore today?" Dustin was anxious.

"From some so-called Socko. He claims him as an old pal, but I've never seen him." Carly shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"Truth spoken," explained Dustin, "Zoey makes similar outfit. What if there's a connection?"

Carly was somewhat scared. _Connections, more connections, and even a lot more connections, where was that going to lead them to? Would there ever be some beam of light at the end of the long, dark, and serpentine tunnel?_ She hugged Dustin. "We're going to stand through this together, promised!"

Dustin smiled and pecked her on the back of her head. "It smells like flowers!"

Carly smiled.

Cookie had studied the messages even more. "A message from Santa Fé ... that's where James had come from, right?"

Dustin nodded. "Michael said so."

"A message from Santa Fé, New Mexico, by ..."

"Mr. Garrett!" Carly's eyes bugged out. She read it and shrieked.

Dustin read in order to figure why Carly was flabbergasted. _According to Mr. Garrett, his son James had been in a vcomatose state since a car crash that had occurred about three years ago. The medics deemed it possible for him to never recover._

Carly and Dustin grabbed each other. They were totally scared and trembled like aspen trees.

Zoey came back from the walkway. "Dustin? Carly? Is anything wrong?"

Cookie showed Zoey the message. "Oh no!" Her pupils bugged out. _What the heck was going on? Zoey concluded that the apparitions of the tall blond rake had started not much after the fatal car crash that had knocked out the real James Garrett._ "I need a very strong coffee!"

Carly and Dustin threw their arms around Zoey._It was creepy, wasn't it?_

* * *

**Chapter 8 Firewire On The Prowl**

* * *

**Time** Day After The Webcast

**Place** Lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** assorted anonymous pupils (background), Zoey Brooks, Firewire, Arthur, Doty, Quinn Pensky (later)

Zoey was sitting in the lounge, reading a new novel by her favourite novelist, J.T. Hawthorne[31]. For a few minutes had she forgotten about all the terror caused by the mysterious apparition of James Garrett, or Jake Crendle, or Denifer Whosoever. But now she heard a cackling noise behind her back. She turned around, and she saw Firewire, Arthur, and Doty, the freakiest freaks of the Pacific Coast Academy. "Hi?" She remembered that Firewire had been the first to tell her about Chase's evil deed. _This must have meant that Firewire was still not over her continual rejection, and that he was ready pouncing on her like a vulture on the leftovers of a lion's repast. She should have been careful._ "Hi?"

Firewire chuckled. _The rumours about Chase's and Zoey's separation has spread like a wildfire, all but completely confirming Firewire's observations._"I've heard it's true, Chase and you?"

Zoey nodded. "As it is true that it's none of your business whom I'm dating or not."

Arthur and Doty cackled.

Firewire poked Arthur's and Doty's ribs.

"What?" Zoey sighed. _When will those creepy freaks understand that I don't want them?_

Firewire pouted. "Dern. Doomsday is around the door, and I won't have dated Zoey."

Usually, Zoey would have made fun of Firewires obession with the days of doom, _which he had probably picked up from some of his infantile cartoons. What a Freak! But the scary circumstances of the last weeks, culminating in the creepy destiny of James Garrett, had fostered her doubts about what was real and what was infantile fantasy. The citetitlelet of Mr. Takato spoke many times of doom-like circumstances. People appearing and disappearing without a trace, the ruler of the past and the ruler to come_. Zoey shrugged. "OK,so, what do you know about the days of doom to come?"

Firewire, Arthur, and Doty quoted randomly one or the other prediction from their cartoon citetitles.

Zoey choked. _That sounded all similar. The most worrying element was the mention of an importer, even a great imposter and a fake ruler, who is keeping the pupils from learning about the truth. This was so creepy._"Firewire," whispered Zoey, "I've got something that would interest you, about the big changes that will end the world as we know it. May we talk about it, but somewhere else where we are more alone?" She almost threw up, but it had to be.

Firewire snickered triumphantly. "Eh, does that mean we will be dating?" He beamed brightly.

Zoey choked."If you want to call sitting together and share our thoughts about the upcoming days of doom something like like that, OK, then we will be dating, but don't even dare to think about touching me or making out with me, you understand that?"

Firewire sighed. "OK, sounds like a fair deal, anyways." He cackled.

In this moment, Quinn Pensky entered the lounge. She was already horribly upset. She had tried thrice or more times to switch her dormitory with someone else. _Lola and Zoey had become unbearable. Too bad, Lisa Perkins had already been assigned with Stacey Dillsen. And neither was it possible to get Lisa to ditch Stacey, nor to make Stacey budge. The cotton swab bitch was probably out for getting back at her and Logan for the fake prom date. And, just a few minutes ago, Logan had announced that he was going to visit an agency for models, together with one Vivian Marx. She was a pain from uvula to pancreas and beyond. And, apparently, they were going to hold hands and lean tenderly against each other, and that all the way from the campus to downtown Malibu and back. Fortunately, her zappers had been recharged and improved. Vivian would whimper in pain. But what was this? Zoey talking with Firewire? That was the top of treason. Hadn't it been enough that she encouraged her little brother to steal Carly from her friend Freddie Benson?_ Quinn unlocked her foot laser and aimed it at firewire's thighs. _5...4...3...2..._ She fired the zapper away at the creepy freak. "Ouuuuch!" She whimpered piteously. _Firewire's pants must have reflected her laser beams and made it hit Quinn's knee._

Firewire turned around and cackled with glee when he noticed that Quinn had just hurt herself. "That's why certain girls are not admitted to the science club."

Arthur and Doty chuckled fanatically.

"Quinn!" roared Zoey, and she shook her head. "That serves you so well!"

Quinn glared satanically at Zoey.

"Have you finally found another dorm to stay?" Zoey's voice was sarcastic.

Quinn was more and more upset. "No, I haven't!" She crept out on the crowd, thinking more about Logan and Vivian than about Firewire and Zoey. _Maybe she should have gone and dressed as a model, following Logan and Vivian to their agency and watching whether they made out? That was really tempting._

Firewire shook Zoey's hand. "OK, let's see us after supper?"

Zoey nodded solemnly. _Was Firewire's general knowledge about apocalyptic trends going to help her any further, solving the mysteries of the past, such as Charles Galloway, James Garrett, and Mr. Takato, and the mysteries of the days to come, the return of the shimmering knight on a white steed , riding in the morning mist that rolled in from the Pacific sea?_

* * *

**Time** same day, after classes

**Place** 148 Maxwell Hall

**People** Chase Matthews, Michael Barret

Chase and Michael were sitting in their dorm. They were pretty much exhausted.

Logan was out on a date with Quinn in nearby restaurant **Pete's And Sam's**[32], and he was expected to be back before 10 p.m.

Michael and Chase had felt the trouble betyween Logan and Quinn.

_Little wonder, Quinn and Logan didn't belong together. Some evil demon must have corrupted Quinn in order to make her consider dating Logan, but why?_ Chase felt his head hurt. _There had been so many questions to face when he returned from London for the Prom, and there were so many more enigmatic questions that got added ever since. _

"So, we've got the same problem," reasoned Michael, "Lisa refuses to believe what I say about Mr. Takato, whereas Zoey refuses to believe you concerning Colon."

Chase nodded solemnly.

"But there's a huge difference," remarked Michael, "while Mr. Takato has disappeared without warning, Colin is real, just residing far away."

Chase sighed. "I've seen him all the spring. Of course, now he's in London, while I'm here."

"So, why don't you just call Colin or one of your friends from London, they will be able to confirm that Colin has advised you to do something?"

Chase nodded with agreement. "I haven't got Colin's number, but I've already left a message for Tabitha[33] ."

"Tabitha?" Michael choked. "Who's Tabitha? I thought you didn't date any girls whatsoever in London."

Chase chuckled. "We haven't dated. Tabitha was Zoey's room-mate before she returned to America, and I stumbled into her when I arrived in Covington in order to look for Zoey."

Michael shrugged. "OK, if it's like this ... but Zoey might be jealous, anyways ..."

"That's now her problem,. I just want to try to be friends with Zoey," remarked Chase. He noticed that he had received a message in his virtual mailbox. He took his cellular phone and typed his personal identification code in order to read the message. "What an accident! It is from Tabitha!"

"No invitation to a dinner for two in the Queen's Park?" Michael cackled.

Chase shook his head. "Not really! It's the URL of her blog where she has left a longer notice for me."

"So, if you aren't interested in Tabitha," wondered Michael, "may I have her? I mean, just in case that Lisa remains stubborn like a sick mule." Michael shuddered with disgust.

Chase snickered. "Not a problem for me, but she's in London! And remember what happened when I tried to date Zoey via webchat?"

Michael coughed and moaned. _But maybe things that didn't work out for Chase and Zoey were going to turn out fine for him and Tabitha? It might have been a matter of destiny that Zoey's and Chase's teledates were screwed. Hey, what a stupid thought. There was no such thing as destiny, was there? On the other hand, hadn't it been sort of destiny when Zoey's tek-mate was destroyed by an earthquake_[_34_]_? What to believe or not? _

Chase tried to connect his laptop to the internet.

It was the time of the day when most pupils tried to do so, hence connections tended to be slow and flaky.

Chase had to try several times.

But then ...

Chase was consternated.

Michael jumped over to Chase and watched his screen. "What?" _Apparently, Tabitha had written that Colin, or Colon, as Chase namecalled him, had disappeared right after the start of the new academic without warning. The administration was clueless. All readers of her blog were encouraged to watch out for him._

Chase's eyes bugged out. He shut down the laptop.

Michael cringed. _That sounded so much like the disappearance of James Garrett. There was something thoroughly rotten in the state of Denmark, and it stank penetrantly across the ocean, and all the way back again._

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Megan Parker (later), Lola Martinez (later)

Zoey lay on her bed. _It had been a very strange evening. Firewire had taken a look at the citetitlelet that had been left behind by Mr. Takato. The common ancestor of the topic of a new world order following the days of doom, or so spoke Firewire, was the __Citetitle of Daniel__, one of the more obscure writings within the __Old Testament__._ Zoey sighed deeply. She had decided to take a look at that source.

Someone appeared to knock at the door.

Zoey shrugged and opened the door. "Hi, Megan!" Zoey had informed Megan about her reunion with Firewire.

"Hi!" Megan was a bit disappointed because she had not been at the reunion.

Zoey explained that Firewire was really creepy, and she had turned a bit protective of Megan. "So, I didn't want him to hit on you or stuff."

Megan sighed. She knew from Dustin that Zoey was a very protective elder sister, but in a much more loving and caring manner than Drake had ever been. "OK, but I think I might defend myself. Thanks for the concern, though."

Zoey nodded. "In any case, the _Citetitle of Daniel_ appears to be at the centre of the inflict. Five consecutive empires, one chasing the other..."

Megan sighed. "Isn't that citetitle already way too old?"

Zoey nodded. "But it's scary, nevertheless. Will there really be a fifth empire ruled from the Pacific Coast Academy? What will it be like?"

Megan smiled. "If the ruler to come takes me away on his white steed, I will be something like the Queen to come , won't I?" She grinned proudly.

Zoey smiled. "Certainly."

The door opened again.

Lola bounded in. "Grrrrrr!"

Megan choked. "See you tomorrow, Zoey!" She waved and disappeared through the window, _Lola would have been way too much confused by all this talk about the empire to come. And Lola's problem's with her cousin and with Vince and Ashley were none of her business, at least not at that point._

Zoey nodded at megan. "See you!" She sighed. _Luckily. Lola was still clueless. But she was probably going to bother her with her stupid problems._

"Zoey! You won't believe it."

Zoey shrugged. "Believe what?"

Vince is preparing for this year's charity walkathon.

Zoey smiled. "Cool! I guess he will gather quite a few donations! Don't forget that all donations are meant per mile![35] "

Lola grunted. _Why did Zoey Brooks have to rub even more salt into her burning wounds?_ "Zoey! He asked me to be his partner for the walkathon, but I refused. Sweating is bad for my beauty, you know."

Zoey shrugged. "Well, you're not the ideal partner for a walkathon."

"Thanks," replied Lola, in a sarcastic manner. "But, he has already chosen another partner. Grrrrr."

Zoey could imagine who had been chosen, but she refrained from replying.

"Shelby, that one creepy betrayer bitch," thundered Lola in a bitter manner.

"Hey," replied Zoey, "how are you talking about your cousin?"

Lola gazed sternly. "Cousin or not, she is about stealing Vince from me. She had planned on doing so since the start of the year, maybe even since I've described him unto her."

"Hey! Shelby is certainly the best choice of a partner for the walkathon. She's all athletic, and stuff."

Lola glared around.

Zoey asked: "Would you prefer Ashley as his partner?"

Lola grunted. _Did Zoey have to mention the name of the beast? Of course she was hardly going to seduce Vince or make out with him, but she may have been working hand in hand with Shelby, behind Lola's back! Hey, that did make sense. Anyways ..._ Lola grabbed her pillow and threw it into Zoey's direction, missing narrowly, and hitting the plush squid,instead.

Zoey groaned. "What has my plush squid ever done to you?"

Lola shrugged. "He has been hired by Ashley in order to spy on me and to destroy me!"

Zoey was upset. She took the pillow and threw it right into Lola's stomach.

The pillow fight lasted for quite a few minutes.

Lola was disappointed because Zoey refused to back her up in her fight against the diabolic conspiracy of Ashley and Shelby.

Zoey sank back onto her bed. _What did Lola know about conspiracies? The rumours of a new world order, the ruler of the past and the ruler to come, the nefarious imposter, Charles Galloway, James Garrett, Mr. Takato, that was one big conspiracy! Carly's grandpa was still Zoey's only hope in order to progress any further. And he was expected to arrive in a few days._

* * *

**Chapter 9 The Witness**

* * *

**Time** A few days thereafter

**Place** Lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Carly Shay (later), Dustin Brooks, Grandpa Shay (later), many random pupils (background)

Zoey Brooks had been waiting in the lounge for half an hour.

Dustin had helped her spend those minutes by citetitleing crossword puzzles with her. "Vertical 47 : A river in Italy with just two letters?" He shook his head.

Carly entered the lounge, dragging her grandfather around.

Dustin smiled and huggled Carly.

Zoey shook her head. _Dustin should behave better!_

Carly blushed. "Er ... Dustin, this is my grandpa." She coughed, and started to stammer. "This is my new sort of boyfriend, Dustin."

Dustin fainted when he shook grandfather's hand.

Carly also introduced Zoey to her grandfather. "And this is his sister, Zoey Brooks."

Zoey smiled. She didn't feek at ease, after Dustin had almost made out with Carly in front of her grandfather's eyes.

Grandfather Shay shook Zoey's hand. "OK, Ms. Brooks! Carly, wouldn't you like to to homework with your new 'boyfriend'?"

Dustin nodded. "Sure, we will do that, right now!"

Carly smiled. She took Dustin, and then she walked away with him.

The old man nodded. "Actually, I'm glad that that Carly found new friends that fast. She better gorgets about her useless old ones, like, Fredward and Samantha. How could Spencer allow Carly to meet with such a loose girl? The whole Puckett family is such a ..."

Zoey choked. "Melanie used to be like her twin, but she's nowhere near like that bad."

Carly's ancestor shrugged. "Sorry, certainly, that's possible, here at a school where discipline and order are still the fashion."

Zoey nodded. "That's true!"

Grandpa Shay agreed. "Also, it takes someone with way more responsibility than Spencer to be legal guardian not only of Carly, but also a de-facto guardian of someone like Sam. Talking about guardians, is it true that you will assume guardianship over your little brother as your parents are in London?"

Zoey nodded. "If I stay in America for college, I'll do that, it will make Dustin a residential. Insurances, tuitions ..."

"I hope you know what you're up to if you do that," remarked the ancient guy. "But you've told Carly that you are interested in the history of the Pacific Coast Academy?"

Zoey agreed. "Yes, I did. I've found some old poetry citetitle of someone anonymous, and he talks a lot about stuff that happened in the school's past."

Grandpa Shay remarked that this had been a popular habit, back then. "Many teacher gave assignments to write diaries, and some of those diaries turned into collections of poems, and stuff."

Zoey nodded. _But hardly all of those citetitles contained scary informations about the times to come at PCA, or have been left behind by Mr. Takato who didn't exist, or, maybe, he did exist, bear with it ..._

"I still remember a Japanese exchange student," remarked the old shark, "we kept thinking about him as a spaz of some sort, but, maybe that was because he didn't really speak our language yet well. Or so we tought. Have you got a old yearcitetitles? They've been in the Harry Schneider Library ..."

Zoey agreed. "I've studied them. Alas, I noticed that some pages were missimg, not torn out or rot away, but clearly cut out."

Grandpa Shay was consternated. "I really want to see that!"

Zoey unpacked Mr. Takato's citetitlelet. "And here it is, the citetitle that I've found ..." Zoey sighed with relief.

Mr. Shay was flabbergasted. "Takato's diary?"

Zoey nodded.

Mr. Shay recognised it. "How do you know that it's his?"

Zoey shrugged. "Basically, my friend Michael claims to have seen Mr. Takato,"She told the long story. "And there it was, this citetitlelet."

Mr. Shay went through it. "It's anonymous, but it makes sense. And Mr. Takato claimed to be a teacher at PCA?"

Zoey nodded solemnly. "That's what Michael remembers, but there is no teacher with this name, or age and ethnicity."

Grandpa Shay grumbled. "Indeed, Takato had claimed that Bradford Junior was a fake, substituted during WWII. Honestly, we've talked a lot about people that show up again, long time after having been believed lost in war, and we all wondered what it would be, coming back when everythone believes you dead. We did not take him serious."

Zoey choked. "I wouldn't have taken it serious, if there had not been strange things going on and on and on." Zoey talked a lot about the events: James Garrett going lost, the missing pages and citetitles in the library, ...

Grandpa Shay understood that Zoey was thoroughly worried. "Unfortunately, I've got to return to Yakima."

"Have you got copies of your old yearcitetitles," wondered Zoey, "so we may compare what pages have been removed?"

Grandpa Shay sighed. "I once gave them Spencer, so he would see what a decent school is, but he abused them for building a sculpture."

Zoey stomped her feet.

Alas, Grandpa Shay promised to take a look at the library, maybe his memory still served him well enough to figure what was missing.

* * *

**Place** Logan's and Michael's dorm

**People** Michael Barret, Chase Matthews, Logan Reese

Chase was still desperate, because he was unable to find a trace of Colin. _That was really insane: Colin, missing without a trace, had forced him to send Denifer, equally lost without a trace, in order to spy on Zoey._

Michael was equally consternated. Mr. Takato was equally lost without a trace. _Alas, he existed, and Michael was proud of that. Old Mr. Shay had remembered him. But there was still no trace of what Mr. Takato had done after graduation, and before his epiphany just before their Junior prom._

Michael and Chase concluded that this could not have been random. Alas, they were unable to convince Logan.

"Today, I'm going to the model agency! And tonight, you will get to face the hottest male model in this universe!" Logan boasted mercilessly.

"Ashton Kutcher," asked Michael, beaming with excitement.

Logan banged his head against the door of the closet. "No, not him!"

Chase chuckled. "Logan is talking about himself."

Michael had a hard time preventing himself from bursting into smithereens for excessive laughter.

Logan shook his head. "Now you laugh, but tonight, you're going to be pale, because I will be a new-born supermodel, and you won't!", thundered Logan. He stomped his feet, and he walked away.

Logan and Michael shrugged helplessly. They did not know what to think about Logan's ambitions as a model, but they knew for sure that it was going to break the neck of his relationship with Quinn when he abused the occasion in order to flirt with all those really hot female models, Vivian just being one of them.

* * *

**Place** hall of Bingham Unlimited, agency for models

**People** Logan Reese, Quinn Pensky (dressed as a busty blonde), Vivian Marx, Maris Bingham (later)

Quinn had donned a fake blond wig, and dressed in some provocative manner. She also used silicon pads. Now she was entering the hall of the agency for models.

Vivian and Logan had been arriving there before Quinn.

Quinn recorded that, up to now, Logan and Vivian had been behaving appropriately, without flirting all the way. _Even Zoey and Dustin would not have done anything different, had they gone together to some office in downtown LA, for whatever reason._

Some sign above one of the doors flashed, signalling that the next visitor was allowed to step into one of the offices that were apparently hiding behind the doors.

Vivian stood up.

Logan nodded at Vivian, letting her go.

Quinn wondered what Vivian was doing behind the doors. She approached Logan.

Unaware of Quinn's costume, Logan glared at her in his usual horny manner. "Hi doll, want to make out?" He grinned with excitement.

Quinn choked. Of course, she would have loved to do so, but not now, as it would have gone and blow her cover. She shrugged. She had swallowed something in order to change the pitch of her voice. "Later on, maybe ... I'm too excited, as this is my first time in this agency."

Logan nodded. "I'm here, too, for the very first time. But some friend is helping me."

Quinn shrugged. "V ... er ... The girl with long, dark hair who just went into office 101?" _Phew, that was so close, barely failing to mention Vivian's name._

Logan nodded. He had not noticed that Quinn knew Vivian. "Oh, I'm Logan Reese. Remember that name! I will be the future male top model!"

Quinn shrugged. "OK, hey, Reese ..." She had a hard time feigning to be surprised. "Isn't that the famous Hollywould producer?"

Logan nodded. "He's my dad!"

Quinn shrugged. "Cool! But, he's so rich, why do youeven need to think about working as a model?"

Logan smirked. "Dad will sooner or later notice that I waste lots of bucks on girls. Then he will stop being generous ..."

Quinn choked. _Did he say girl, plurale, as in several of them? How many?_ She had a hard time suppressing her rising jealousy. "OK. So have you got something like a steady girlfriend?"

The door to office 101 opened again, and Vivian stepped outside. She smiled at Logan. "OK, Ms. Bingham is ready to talk to you."

Logan stood up. He high-fived Vivian, and smiled, before he tried his luck.

Quinn waved, and she rushed away.

Logan puted. "Hey, doll, I need your phone number!"

But it was too late.

Logan sighed and shrugged. He blew one kiss at Vivian, and entered office 101.

* * *

**Place** office 101 of Bingham Unlimited

**People:** Logan Reese, Maris Bingham

Maris, a busty teenage blonde, sat behind her desk. "Hi! You're Logan Reese?"

Logan nodded. "Hi!"

Maris told Logan to sit down. "OK, I'm Maris Bingham, VP. Just to be clear, I'm just a highschool girl, my mother owns the whole shop here." She chuckled. "She thinks I'm old enough to learn to take responsibility, thus I have to serve in this office, from time to time, in order to get to know the world of business. I also like to taylor and make my own dress, and would love to present the most exclusive dresses on my own luxury body. To be clear, my mother is in charge with all the decisions, I just make the interviews."

Logan smiled. "That's cool! Dad would have liked to do that with me, but I want to become a model, thus I've begged him to allow me to try this first." He shrugged. "Maybe the name Malcolm Reese tells you something?"

Maris smiled. "Sure! He's the big zampano of Hollywood!"

Logan grinned. "He certainly is. Thus he doesn't have enough time for me. He spends most time, if he isn't busy with his movies, at courts, requesting divorces.".

Maris nodded. "Just as my mom does."

Logan smiled.

The two of them kept on talking.

While Maris wasn't entitled to decide on her own, she took notes to pass to her mom.

After all, Logan was about leaving the office of Maris Bingham with a fantastic impression.

* * *

**Place** hall of Bingham Unlimited

**People:** Logan Reese, Vivian Marx, Quinn Pensky (still dressed as a model, and hidden behind some plants)

Vivian smiled when she saw Logan come back. "Maris was great, wasn't she?"

Logan grinned. "You should have told me that she's a school girl, like us. That would have decreased my tension, quite a bit."

Vivian shrugged. "I didn't know that she was in charge today."

Logan sighed. "That's OK, this way, it was a positive surprise. She's incredibly hot, and a hell of refreshing for a VP! I could have smooched the living hell out of her, right on site."

Vivian smiled. "But remember, it's all up to her mother. But she will probably get through with it!"

Logan sighed with relief. "OK, thanks for all."

Vivian smiled. "That wasn't a problem at all." She petted one of Logan's shoulders. "You will be a great model!"

"Just like you," replied Logan. Then he pecked Vivian's lips with his own.

Vivian smiled.

Quinn had been crouched behind a few pots that supported palm trees. When she heard Logan talk about smooching with Maris, she had started to feel her stomach she had to threw up, as soon as she saw Logan's and Vivian's peck kiss.

The pots filled immediately with some warm, stinky liquid, essentially half-digested sushi.

Logan and Vivian had heard a gurgling sound, but they did not notice that Quinn was behind them. They shrugged, and they prepared for returning to the campus of the Pacific Coast Academy.

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Lola Martinez, Quinn Pensky (later)

Lola nad Zoey were lying on their beds.

Lola had kept on talking how much she distrusted her own cousin, Shelby. "Vince and Shelby are jogging every break, and before breakfast, and after dinner. That drives me so mad!"

Zoey shrugged. "I hope not mad enough to refrain from reading before you sign the sponsoring lists for the walkathon. Remember: The bids are per mile, not per athlete!"

Lola grunted. "I think I've learnt my lesson!"

Zoey shrugged. "You did? OK!"

"And what have you learnt from the old chap," wondered Lola.

Zoey narrated her encounter. "And in the afternoon, we talked about Charles Galloway."

Lola shuddered. "Not again that reverend!"

Zoey shook her head. "Revenant! Charles Galloway is a revenant. Anyways, Mr. Shay still knew him alive. He was a friend of Takato. Even more, he was probably the only friend Takato had at the whole school."

Lola shrieked. "So, Takato is real? Michael didn't make up his encounter with a mystery guy?"

Zoey sighed. "All I can say is that there was one Takato like 50 years ago. There's still no evidence for Mr. Takato's life ever since. I mean, he must have done something, ever since. But what?"

Quinn opened the door from the outside, and she walked in. Her face was covered with a posture of dismay and disgust. "Logan is such a jerk!"

Lola and Zoey replied unison. "We've always told you!"

Quinn grunted. "Yeah, you're so great at rubbing salt into my bleeding wounds." She started weeping piteously.

Lola and Zoey stepped up to Quinn, in some vain attempt to comfort their hapless room-mate.

Quinn stammered, trying to tell her mates about what she had seen at Bingham Unlimited.

Zoey and Lola had seen that coming, but they refrained from making that remark.

* * *

**Chapter 10 Trading Roomies**

* * *

**Time** another week later

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**Lola Martinez, Quinn Pensky, Zoey Brooks**

Zoey sighed with total relief when Quinn had finally given up on Logan Reese, the world's worst jerk. She had always known that Logan was no good for Quinn, he was a total curse for her existence, a worse curse than the one that had seized tha Pacific Coast Academy when Galloway was about haunting and taunting them. _Quinn and Logan were totally incompatible, as Logan was a tasteless jock, and Quinn was a refined geek. This mixture is downright decadent, like mixing wine and dung which will always result in dung._

Quinn had always been evasive when Zoey had tried to talk some sense into her. That's why she had constantly tried to get away from dorm 101 Brenner Hall. And now, she had obtained a letter from Mrs. Burvitch, the boarding manager. Quinn read it: She was now officially made to relocate into a dorm with Lisa Perkins. Quinn bounced around crazily.

Alas, wasn't it strange that Quinn was allowed to move into Lisa's dorm exactly after having trashed Logan?

Lola smiled. She would never have admitted to it, but she was endlessly happy to get rid of that freaky room-mate who experimented with poisons, bacteria, explosives, and radioactivity.

Zoey didn't really care. But she wondered who would be their new roomie?

Quinn grabbed her belongings. "OK, I'll fetch the rest later!"

Zoey and Lola insisted in Quinn getting her scientific objects out of there first. "You know, all the stuff that kept on scaringus to no end: The killer bees, the spider, the rat, the icky liquids, the ..."

Quinn groaned. But, finally, she was ready to leave 101. For one last time, she waved at the girls who had been her room-mates for over two years. Then she disappeared from sight.

Zoey and Lola sighed with relief. _No longer worries about biological, chemical, or nuclear hazard alerts ..._

The door went open again.

Stacey Dillsen stuck her nose through the opening. "Hi, Lola! Hi, Zoey! According to Burvitch, I'm your new room-mate, me and my cotton swabs, that is!"

Zoey wanted to see the official letter from the boarding management. She studied the signature thrice. Then she sighed with despair. _Well, at least, cotton swabs were not toxic, they did not explode, and so on._

Lola was consternated. _From the frying pan into the boiling water._

Stacey dragged her belongings into 101. "Aw, my cotton swabs, we've found a new home!" Stacey smiled. "Oh, Zoey, have you already heard my latest song about sassafras tea?"

Lola choked. _Oh no, not again!_

Zoey sighed. "No, I don't want to hear it!"

Stacey started weeping.

Zoey tried to change subject. "Maybe we could make a camping trip to Yoshemite Park over the fall break?"

Lola sighed. "Maybe ... but Coco has always found an excuse in last minute to cancel the whole thing ... [36] "

Zoey sighed. "Then we will just have to find another responsible adult. Megan's step-brother Joshuah is a credited and appropriated scout leader."

Lola shrugged. "OK, maybe!"

Alas, nothing could restore Lola's good mood since Stacey was her new roomie.

Stacey remarked that there were wild bears in Yoshemite Park.

Lola trembled.

Zoey shook her head. "You just need to stick to a few rules, and the bears won't bother you. Or so I heard."

Lola grumbled. "I know that there are some rules, but ... do the bears know those rules, too?"

Zoey shrugged.

Lola was also bothered by Zoey defending Shelby against Lola's accusation of stealing Vince from her.

There was only one conclusion for Lola: Getting away from 101 Brenner Hall!

* * *

**Place** dormitory room of Lisa Perkins

**People** Quinn Pensky,Lisa Perkins

Quinn smiled when she entered her new home. She was keen on getting her luggage done as fast as possible.

Alas, Lisa Perkins was in a different mood.

Quinn shrugged, as she didn't really care. _No longer having to bear Zoey's glee concerning her separation from Logan was all that counted._

Lisa sobbed. "I just had to trash Michael Barret."

Quinn wondered. "What? But you looked so sweet together after the Open MIC Night[37] "

Lisa sighed. "I had thought so, after Michael saved me from Chase's rampant lawn mawer."

Lisa's voice was slightly sarcastic.

Quinn somewhat sensed Lisa's subtle understatement. _The reason was clear:_ Quinn had tuned what many pupils callewd a lawn mawer into a high-tech racing cart that allowed Chase to win an insane cart race against Logan Reese, at the cost of losing his control over the vehicle because he could not really handle the untamed turbo propulsion. _This incident had come very close to endangering Lisa's limbs and life, if it had not been for Michael who, like a typical hero in all those of Malcolm's movies that combine action and love, had risked, without a trace of a second thought, his own health in order to save little Lisa._ Quinn sighed. After having to suffer from Lola's and Zoey's sarcasm, she was now going to bear Lisa's. _From the frying pan into the hot water._

Lisa sobbed silently, and she lay on her bad. "Logan just told me that Michael lusts for another girl, some Tabitha."

Quinn grunted. "You just trash Michael for a rumour started by Logan?" She figured that Logan might do anything in order to sow disharmony among his 'friends', just because he's upset as Quinn had finally come to a clear mind, undoing what she never should have done in the first place.

Lisa shook her head. "Our relationship was on a very weak base from the early get-on."

Quinn understood that saving Lisa's life was not really a great foundation for her loving him. [38]

Lisa sobbed. "Our whole common life has been characterised by slipping from one misunderstanding into the next. He made fun of my hand-made locket because I had talked about the ugly oendant that one of my relatives had given me, just because he was too impartient to let me explain everything[39], and then the whole trouble with his fears of rollercoasters[40], but, in the end, the top of all the crap was his insane behaviour at the junior prom, where he had to invent some Mr. Takato." Lisa grunted sarcastically. "Ever since, he's completely nuts."

Quinn shrugged. She knew that Zoey's research concerning Mr. Takato ghad come to some strange result, and she was not nearly done researching, but Quinn knew very well that Lisa was not accessible to reason when it came to Mr. Takato. _Lisa and Michael breaking up was probably not a bad thing, after all, regardless of what was really the reason for Logan spreading riumours about Michael being interested in a girl from Covington he had never seen, and that he was hardly ever going to see._

* * *

**Place** lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Lola Martinez, Vince Blake, Shelby Marx, many anonymous students (background), Megan Parker (phone)

Lola sat in the lounge, her mood having dropped below the freezing point after getting to know about Stacey moving in. She hoped that Vince was there for her, at least once in his life.

Vince and Shelby bounded in.

Lola's mood stayed miserable.

"Hi Vince!" Lola forced herself into smiling. But she was not really good at that.

Shelby smiled. "Hi Lo!"

Lola shuddered with disgust. "What was Shelby doing with Vince?"

Vince grinned. "Oh, sweets, Shelby and I, we have made 25 miles, last Saturday, in less than two hours."

Lola coughed. "Good for you?"

Shelby nodded. "We're going to beat a new record in the charity walkathon. How much are you going to pay for each mile?"

Lola went sickly pale. _Vince and Shelby, tenths of miles by each other's side. That was so disgusting. What if they were going to hold hands during the walk?_

Vince wondered. "Shelby has got a breath like a war horse. Hey, sweets, what's up with you?"

Lola grudged silently.

Shelby also remarked that Mr. Bradford was going to watch the Charity Walkathon.

Lola groaned. _So Shelby and Vince could hug and kiss in front of Mr. Bradford. Perfect for them!_

Vince sighed. "Don't you want to come jogging with us?"

Lola screamed like a fury. "No!" _Enough was enough._ Lola did not like jogging with Vince, because she never wanted to look sweaty, not when she happened to run into a TV cam, and she always hoped to be seen more and more on TV.

Vince shrugged. "Too bad. So I have to bear your cousin for a few more miles, all alone."

Shelby chuckled.

Lola exploded.

Vince had no clue why Lola was so grumpy.

Suddenly, Vince's cellular phone rang.

He picked it up. "Vince Blake?"

Megan Parker was at the other end. "Ashley is feeling sick. Yiou should come and see her!"

Vince sighed. "OK, you've heard it, I have to visit my sis, it seems to be urgent." He waved at the girls, and then he was gone.

Lola cried like a fury.

Shelby wondered. "Are you crazy, Lo?"

Lola did not answer. _A little hint about Ashley being sick, and Vince had to run. He had not noticed how bad she felt. But Ashley got his attention in a whim. And she was properly feigning. Ashley wasn't a bad actress, no, she was a really good one, great enough to fool even Megan, a very tricky and smart girl. Or, maybe, Megan was working together with Ashley? And with Shelby? It was one conspiracy in order to get her away from Vince!_ LOla screamed, and she ran out on the lounge.

Shelby shrugged. "You are crazy, Gloria Maria Dolorosa!"

* * *

**Place** 148 Maxwell Hall

**People** Logan Reese, Michael Barrett, Chase Matthews

Michael was really stinky. "You've ruined my relationship with Lisa!"

Logan shrugged arrogantly. "Hey! I've only told her what you've told me, that you've got the hots for Tabitha."

Michael croaked. "No way! I've just joked when I talked about Tabitha. I don't know zilch about her, barring the fact that she had been Zoey's roomie at Covington's."

"You will be better off without her," reasoned Logan. "As she still refuses to believe in Mr. Takato."

Logan's voice expressed a lot of hidden sarcasm.

Michael sighed. "As you are better off without Quinn!" He was more or less sarcastic, too.

Chase wanted his roomies to stop bickering. "Some pupils here want to do their homework!"

Michael sobbed. _School didn't matter for him anymore, now that he had lost Lisa._

Logan shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not ... I've only dated Quinn because my grandpa would have preferred me marrying a girl that was a lot like himself, you know, savy and obsessed with science. Now I have to wait until the age of 30 until I get the money that he has reserved for me. The alternative was going to Caltech, but what do I want with a scientific school? Stupid last will!"

Chase choked. "You've dated Quinn just because of your grandpa's last will?"

Logan nodded. "Exactly!"

Chase shrugged. "That's insane."

Logan grinned. "At least, now I may be more myself. Tonight, I'm going to a whirl pool party at Maris Bingham's, together with Vivian. I'm going to meet a lot of other hot models!" Logan grinned excessively.

Michael groaned: "How good for a spoilt brat like you!"

Michael and Logan kept up insulting each other.

Chase had got enough of it all. He left the dorm. He wished he could switch with someone ... maybe with Vince? He was going to look for him, supposing that he was with Lola.

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Lola Martinez, Chase Matthews, Dr. Nussbaum[41] (phone)

Chase found Lola alone in her dorm. "Hi Lo, why is Vince not with you?"

Lola was all pale, and in a downright sarcastic mood. "He prefers to be with his sick sister Ashley!" She started puking.

Chase was consternated. "Oh my goodness! Lola? Are you OK?"

Lola could not answer. She passed out on side.

Chase was consternated. "Zoey!" He cried for his former girlfriend's help, but there was no reply.

He took his cellular phone, typing an emergency key. "Help! Help!"

Dr. Nussbaum from St. Schneider's hospital picked up the phone. "Sir? Could you be more precise? Where are you? What happened?"

Chase stammered when he tried to report the situation, but he was still able to make himself understandable.

Dr. Nussbaum promised to send an emergency team in order to fetch Lola.

Chase sighed without a trace of a clue.

The emergency team was going to arrive a few minutes later, taking Lola to said St. Schneider's, wherever it was.

* * *

**Chapter 11 St. Schneider's**

* * *

**Time** next day

**Place** foyer of St. Schneider's Hospital

**People** Dr. Nussbaum, Chase Matthews, Vince Blake (later), Shelby Marx (later), Lola Martinez, Ashley Blake (later), anonymous medics, nurses, and patients (background)

The megaphone sounded across the hall. "Emergency! Emergency! Paging Dr. Nussbaum!"

Alas, the high-emergency paramedic team, lead by Dr. Nussbaum, was just arriving.

Lola was still unconscious when two auxiliary maedics pushed her whelbarrow, or whatever they called it, into the foyer.

Chase was totally excited. "What's up with her? Will she ever be well again?"

The paramedics shrugged.

Dr. Nussbaum rushed away. "Will be back in three, four, five ..."

Chase was anxious. "Three, four, or five what? Seconds? Minutes?"

Dr, Nussbaum shrugged. "or maybe seven, eight, ..."

Chase was angry. "What? Hours? Days?"[42]

The level of noise in the foyer was really high, which was not surprising for a large hall populated with a chaotic mixture of people.

Hence, Chase did not get or understand any further answer from Dr. Nussbaum.

The paramedic team asked Chase a lot of questions which he could not answer.

Did Lola take drugs? Did things like that happen more often? Known allergies to certain medications?

Needless to say, Chase was desperate.

One of the paramedics received a call. "OK, Miss Martinez will be accomodated in Paracelsus hall, room 101."

_101! 101! 101!_ Chase hated that number, oh-so-much. He decided to give the para team Zoey's and Quinn's numbers. "Those are the room-mates of Lola Martinez, and they have been so for several years, they will know how to contact her parents."

The paramedics nodded, and they were ready to try to contact the Quinn and Zoey.

Oh, I know that she has also got two couins at my school, Vivienne Marx and Shelby Marx.

As Chase was not a relative, he was not yet allowed to see Lola in her hospital room.

Vince arrived, accompanied by Ashley and Shelby.

Ashley still looked a bit sick.

But this didn't prevent her from making arrogant statements. "I'm sure Lola geigns a collapse, just in order to separate the two of you! We've learnt that during the shootings of "Malcolm Front And Back[43] ". She's one jealous beast."

Shelby didn't mind Ashley accusing her cousin in such a really tasteless manner. "Maybe?"

Vince wanted to go to Lola's room.

Alas, exactly like Chase, he was not yet allowed to.

Only Shelby got immediately a visitor's pass.

Chase wondered why Vince had been so loosely caring about his fiancé Lola. "If I hadn't been there, trying to look for you, Lola might be dead ..."

Vince was upset by Chase's remark. He punched Chase hard in the stomach, knocking the living wind out of him.

Chase staggered, and keeled over.

Ashley grinned. "He so deserves it for having denounced you, back then, getting you expelled."

Too bad for Chase , he had no witnesses.

Paramedics were close.

Ashley, Vince, and Shelby agreed on having seen Chase collapes withoput reason, right in front of their eyes.

Nobody was there in order to dispute the story.

"148 Pasteur Hall," announced the paramedic team.

* * *

**Time** next day, late afternoon

**Place** St. Schneider's Hospital, 148 Pasteur Hall

**People** Chase Matthews, Zoey Brooks, Dr. Nussbaum

Chase woke up in the cold neon light, feeling it stabbing his eyes.

Dr. Nussbaum sighed. "OK, he's stable. The visitor may come in!"

The door opened.

Zoey Brooks walked in. "Hi Chase!"

Dr. Nussbaum decided that he could leave Chase alone with Zoey.

Zoey nodded solemnly.

Dr. Nussbaum walked out on the two pupils.

Chase wondered. "Zoey?"

Zoey grinned. "Well, Dean Rivers has called your grandpa Joe from Baltimore[44] , and he sent him a fax, allowing Dean Rivers to deal with the whole thing as he thought it most suited. And as Dean Rivers hasn't got any time to take care of it, he sent the most reliable and mature senior to the hospital." She smiled sarcastically. "And you know who that is!"

Chase coughed.

Zoey continued. "I've brought you a few things from the campus shop you might like. But, essentially, I've got some of your belongings. Michael has done your laundry, and here it is." She placed a sack of cloth next to Chase's bed.

"How is Lola doing?" wondered Chase.

Zoey was uncomfortable. "You wake up from some shock, and all you have to think about is Lola?"

Chase coughed.

Zoey started jumping to conclusions. "Ohm now everything makes perfect sense. You got Lola pregnant, and she had the nausea. Little wonder that you were the first to take care of her!"

Chase choked, consternated from head to toe. "What?"

Zoey was unstoppable. "You've picked your plans just fine. Last year, you were not eager to see me again, you longed for Lola. That's why you sent James Denifer Garrett, the phantom guy, upon me, in order to get me to cheat on you so that everything may look like my fault, and you appeared to all of the pupils as the brave guy who has been cheated on by his loose girlfriend ..."

Chase was dismayed. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

Zoey laughed demonically. "You don't? Aw, what a sweet excuse! Too bad I don't fall for it!"

Chase moaned. "But, Zoey, I was never interested in Lola."

Zoey shook her head. "Blech! What have you done with Lola, like, three years ago[45] ?"

Chase was desperate. "Hey! Lola had asked me on a date, but you were comfortable with that, so I've tried. Besides, we really were too different to get anywhere."

"Apparently, it did not just last for a few days," insisted Zoey.

Chase felt utterly misunderstood. "Then ask Lola about ..."

Zoey grinned. "I will, after the birth of her baby! Maybe Vince wants to know that Lola is trying to sneak that kid as his!"

Vince remembered how he had been struck in the stomach by Vince. "No! Vince will kill me!"

Zoey shook her head. "No, Vince wouldn't do that anymore, he's no longer a violent guy."

Chase coughed. He still felt the punch. "So, how do you think that I have collapsed, right in the hospital's foyer?"

Zoey grinned even more. "Well, you were apparently that excited about Lola and her pregnancy, that you collapsed. Shelby told me that you were knee-deep in the hoopla when she arrived with Vince and Ashley, in order to see her cousin."

Chase sighed. "If Lola is pregnant, I've got nothing to do with it. I was really excited, but just because Lola is a friend in need." _Maybe Zoey is right with his collapse having been caused by nothing else than his excitement about Lola's critical situation? And he had just imagined Vincent's right punch, sort of a memory from the almost deadly encounter he had with Vincent after having accused him in the public of cheating in a test?_

Zoey switched straight to the formalities for which Dean Rivers had sent her to the hospital. "OK, now I'm done here, so,see you again after your dismissal from hospital, or, maybe, you want to stay here until the birth of the baby, Lola's and yours?" _It was better to let Chase sort out those things on his own, it wasn't any longer her business._

Chase coughed. He didn't dare to contradict Zoey, no longer. But he was thoroughly disappointed because his former long-term crush and best female friend had arrived at those baseless confusions. _Did many other pupils at the Pacific Coast Academy think, like Zoey, that Lola's sickness was a form of pregnancy nausea, and that he, Chase Bartholomew Matthews, was the father of her upcoming baby?_

Zoey had one last thing to say, before she laft the room. "You've received mail from the committee for the federal prize for young poets. I think you're in the national finals. Have a nice one!"

Chase shrugged. _Really?_ Well, he had participated in the contest with a poem he wrote when he was heart-broken because he had heard that Zoey had cheated on him with James.

Indeed, the epistle invited Chase to the last level of the contest.

Chase did not know whether to be glad about that, as his current situation hardly allowed him to be glad about whatever.

Whereas the previous turns had just consisted in submitting a written poem, the national finals also involved reciting a poem to the jurors.

Was Chase really up to that tough task?

He imagined that it was going to be easier if he used his guitar for backup, with a tune that Michael might write for him.

The finals would take place at Hotel Tipton in Boston.

* * *

**Place** St. Schneider's Hospital, 101 Paracelsus Hall

**People** Lola Martinez, Juan Martinez[46], Shelby Marx, Zoey Brooks (later)

Lola sighed when her visitors came in. "Dr. Nussbaum said that it won't be that bad. I was just overworked. I need some rest. Unfortunately, if everything goes wrong, I can't graduate this year."

Mr. Juan Evan Evangelista Camacho y Martinez was very disappointed.

But Lola didn't really care about school. "I'm going to win the Nobel Prize next year, anyways! _Malcolm Front And Back_ rocks front and back!"

Her dad sighed.

Shelby feigned hypocritically that she was so sorry about what had happened to her cousin.

Juan sighed. "OK, but you will soon be back to school, anyways?"

Lola nodded. _Unfortunately!_

The door went open.

Zoey asked whether she was allowed to enter.

Shelby explained that Zoey was Lola's roomie, or had been that for quite a few years.

Zoey nodded. "Some formalities for the school and the health insurance ..."

Juan nodded. "I've already signed everything."

Zoey agreed. "That's great!"

Mr. Martinez waved at the girls. "OK, I'm going to the cafeteria."

Zoey shrugged. She had not been up to chasing Lola's dad away. _But he probably needed a break, he must have been here all day long!_

The old man was gone.

Lola wondered: "How is Chase?"

Zoey sighed. "I hate those formalities, especially after you've stolen Chase from me ..."

Lola was consternated. "I did what?"

Zoey grunted. "Now that you are going to have a baby with Chase ..."

Shelby choked. "Really?" She smiled. _Dis this mean that Lola was about giving up on Chase, so Vincent Blake was now all hers? That needed to be celebrated!_

Lola had no clue what Zoey was talking about. "What are you talking about?"

Zoey was slightly annoyed. "You know what I'm talking about. You and Chase ... he hasn't come back from England for me, but for you! And he sent James in order to make me look like an adulteress! And now your first concern is Chase's health!"

Lola choked. "Zoey, I'm definitely not pregnant! And I have never done anything like that with that dweeb!"

Zoey wasn't convinced. "You're an actress, you know how to feign innocence! But this time, I won't fall for it any longer!"

Lola hoped that Shelby would defend her, but she hoped in vain, as the illoyal cousin was still thinking about taking over Vince.

Zoey chuckled. "So, you say that you've never had anything with Chase? Three years ago, you have started dating him ..."

Lola coughed. "True, but, do you know why I did that?"

Zoey shrugged, but she didn't really want to know.

Lola explained: "As an actress, I often need to citetitle a girl in love with a boy, although the corresponding actor is not the hot guy of her dreams."

Zoey nodded.

Lola said that she had to practise for those situations, and hence ...

Zoey sighed. "That makes a lot of sense, now that you say it. I'm sorry."

Shelby plastered a fake smile, as she was not ready to give up on Vince.

Lola scratched her head. "But ... wait! Just because I haven't wanted Chase, that doesn't mean that you're wrong in saying that he has really lusted for me, and returned from England for that very reason! And sending James in order to make you cheat on him ..."

Shelby nodded. "Some guys are that desperate ..."

Zoey thought that Lola's words were not without reason.

Lola explained that she had been really disgusted when Chase had hugged her that tightly at the junior prom. "I feigned being nice, because he was still a friend, and I was happy that he was back, but it was so gross feeling such an incredible dweeb's arms around me!"

Zoey nodded with understanding. "He's so going to be sorry for that! Megan will sure find a way to make him pay!"

Juan Martinez came finally back, holding a cup of steamy coffee and a cross bagel in his hands. "OK, I've just got a message in the cafeteria. Drake Parker has heard from his sister about the incidents, and he has decided to give a little concert for all the pupils here."

"Drake is hot," remarked Lola.

Shelby agreed wholeheartedly with her cousin. "He's a bit of a weakling, though."

Zoey sighed. "He's a jerk, but it's nice that he does that! Sorry, I've done everything here that was necessary, I'm now going back to the PCA!"

Lola waved at her roomie. "See you!"

* * *

**Time** some hour later

**Place** children's lounge of St. Schneider's

**People** Drake Parker, Megan Parker, Chase Matthews, Lola Martinez, a bunch of other young patients

The patients were sitting on their couches, beanbags, or whatever they had grabbed.

Megan and Drake entered.

Usually, Megan had never been keen on Drake's rock performance, because she had often enough had to listen to him practising in their old home. But since a few weeks, she had started missing Drake, although that went without saying.

Being away from home had started changing Megan's attitude towards Drake to some degree.

The kids cheered when Drake picked his plectrum, striking the chords.

Drake started citetitleing _Down We Fall_[_47_]

Lola started melting away when she listened to Drake's performance. _What a divine voice!_ She had listened to many of his records, but this time, it was all a whole lot greater, and much more fantastic.

For a few moments, Drake even replied Lola's swooning gaze.

Lola had wanted to ask Megan for an idea of a vicious prank on Chase, but now Drake was the only thing on her mind. She totally forgot about her vengeful plans.

Drake had seen Lola on TV, like, a dozen of times, but in life, she was even a lot hotter than any girl he had ever met before.

Too bad for them, as the evening was much too short!

* * *

**Chapter 12 News From Kansas**

* * *

**Time** two days after

**Place** 148 Maxwell Hall

**People** Logan Reese, Michael Barret, Chase Matthews, Carly Shay (later), Dustin Brooks (later)

Michael helped Chase back into his dorm. "How was hospital? Were there any hot nurses?"

Chase coughed. "Hey! You seem to rush it hard!"

Michael sighed. "I can't help it, after losing Lisa ..."

Logan grinned. "Who cares? By the way, maris invites me and the other models to a fashion expo in Paris."

Chase shrugged. "How good for you!"

Michael had heard about the rumours concerning Lola and Chase, "Have you really made babies with Lola?"

Chase grunted. "No, I didn't! It's nothing but Zoey's perverted fantasy to assume that I got her to date James, so she will be the bad girl that dumped me, and not the other way."

Logan shrugged. "Why not have several girls at the same time? It's a whole lot more fun. I haven't got any qualms dating all the hot models: Vivian, Maris, Dakota North, Cranberry Sinclair, Pattie Perez." He swooned.

Michael and Chase glared oddly at Logan. "You're sick!"

Logan disagreed, grinning with glee. "Nopes, I'm brilliant, and you are just envious losers!" He stood up, and walked out on his pals. "OK, I've got to go to dinner with Vivian, over in Pete's and Sam's[48] "

Chase sighed. "Michael, I need your help!"

Michael shrugged. "You need professional help! If you can't get Lola and Zoey sorted out, ..." He jumped off his table. "Your plan with Lola and Zoey was so ..." He rushed out to the door.

Chase sobbed. "Michael!"

Along came Carly Shay. "Hi, Chase! I've already heard the news ..."

Chase groaned. "Damnit, I'm not responsible for Lola, or any baby she might expect!"

Carly shook her head. "What? Well, I've heard people talking about that stuff, but I do believe you. It just doesn't make sense, it is as if Freddie had paid Dustin, so that he can finally say that I've dumped him, although I never wanted him, and just in order to get Sam to pity him, so they may start something behind my back. I want to talk about some other news."

Chase looked dumbfounded. _Were there any rumours worse thatn those spread by Zoey?_

Carly grinned. "You've made it into the national poets' championship, or whatever they want to call it."

Chase sighed with utter relief. "Oh, that? It's true ... I wanted Michael to help me writing a little tune to my poems. That would ease my presentation!"

Carly sighed. "I'm not a composer. Sorry!"

Chase nodded. "But thanks for your concern. It means a lot, now that everyone hates me for something I haven't ever even been thinking to do."

Carly nodded. She hugged Chase briefly. "Oh, by the way, I've once tried to write a theatralic pievce, named _Beginning Of A Romance_, it is like Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_, but more modern."

Chase smiled. "Cool!"

Dustin stood in the door. "Grrrr!"

Carly looked at Dustin. "Hi, sweetie! It's not what most people might think it is ..."

Dustin nodded. "Hi! OK, honeybun!" He sighed. "Chase, are you OK?"

Chase moaned. "How can I, when everyone believes that I've sent James unto Zoey, just so she woukld cheat on me before I could cheat on her."

Dustin sighed. "That's bad. I'm going to talk to Zoey about it. I'd never say that my sis is a bad girl, but ..."

Carly nodded. "I wouldn't say that about Spencer, either, akthough he can be cranky."

Chase wondered how Carly's web show was getting along.

Carly shrugged. "Cookie is cool as a web producer, and Ashley, who has replace Lola, as of last week, is so and so. I mean that she can be a hell of arrogant, but she does her job well, anyways."

Dustin sighed.

Carly continued. "OK, news from cookie, there's a message from some Bailey[49]. She is basically from Kansas, and she went to school, until recently, with a girl called Nicole Bristow. "

Chase's eyes bugged out. "Nicole was Zoey's best friend fro two years."

Dustin nodded solemnly. "Yeah! She was such a refreshing bimbo ... and she was always hunting cute boys."

Carly gasped. "Oh ... really? Well, maybe that's why Bailey insisted in remembering Nicole to Lola."

Chase nodded. "Makes sense!"

Dustin agreed. "So, what did Bailey really want to say?"

Carly sighed. "Well, Nicole Bristow has got a boyfried ..."

Chase smiled. "I'm glad that she did not scare each and every boy away with her unsolicited cheerful demeanour."

Carly nodded. "Good for her, but, the reason why Bailey messaged us:"

Chase urged Carly to tell it, "Now!".

Carly agreed. "That boyfriend is no other than James Garrett, or Jake Crendle, or Denifer, or by whatever name he tries to pass."

Chase's heart stood still. "Are Nicole and James still dating?"

Carly shrugged.

Chase sighed. "I have to find out, and if I have to go all the way to Kansas."

Dustin and Carly glared oddly. "You can't simply go to Kansas, right now ..."

Chase nodded. "But the next break is right after the poetic finals, and Kansas is on my way, so ..."

Carly shrugged. "OK, as you wish! I think it's very dary, but we wish you all luck you need, don't we, Dustin?"

Dustin nodded. "Yeah, sweetie!"

Chase sighed with excessive relief.

* * *

**Time** a few hours later

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks

Dustin found his sister in her dorm. "Zoey! I'm totally disappointed by you!"

Zoey gasped. "Dustin! What the ..."

Dustin glared in a grim manner. "Zoey! How could you dare to spread idiotic rumours about Chase? He knows very well that he isn't in Lola's league, so ..."

Zoey grinned. "Right, Chase isn't. But that doesn't mean that he hasn't tried to seduce her, and sent James my way in order to make me look like the big bad bitch that cheated on him and and dumped him, so that Lola would have pitied him, and let herself get seduced by him. Granted, Lola was not dumb enough to fall for Chase's mean trick, but that doesn't mean that this had not been his plan in the first place. Beh!"

Dustin shook his head. "Where did that stupidity come from?"

Zoey moaned. "It just makes more sense that Chase did plan all this ... and then blame Colin for everything. And then he made Colin and James disappear, so they can't serve as witnesses."

Dustin's eyes bugged out. "Zoey! Have you gone insane?"

Dustin started weeping. _That was no more his wonderful elder sister. What had happened to her? Had uit something to do with the strange citetitlelert she had kept on reading from time to time?_ "By the way, there is a trace of James. Carly just got a message from someone who has seen him, not too long ago, by the side of someone whom you used to call your best friend for like two years."

Zoey coughed. "What?"

Dustin nodded. "James has been reported to have dated, or still date, Nicole Bristow, over there in Kansas."

Zoey choked. Then she yelled at the top of her lungs: "Nicole?" She had not seen her in over two years.

Dustin sighed. "Yeah, Nicole. And, believe it or not, Chase is going to make a stop in Kansas, on his way to Boston, or from Boston, you know, the poetic championships ... so he may find James. Does that look like someone who wants to make James disappear from the face of this earth?"

Zoey coughed. "So, Chase is really after Nicole? And he has been so all the time? Now, that does make perfect sense!"

Dustin was embarassed by the confusion that he had achieved without wanting or trying to. "But. Zoey, I haven't said anything like that ..."

Zoey grunted. "You didn't have to say it! I have got eyes and ears in my face, not just makeup!"

Dustin was consternated. He had imagined that Zoey was glad when she heard news about her good old friend Nicole, but, instead, she had just jumped into the next stupid conclusion. "Zoey! Can't you stop with your inadequate jealousy, for just one moment, and think a moment? Why aren't you excited about news from your closest friend?"

Zoey stomped her feet. "What closest friend dares to steal your boyfriend?"

Dustin shook his head. "Oh no! When Nicole was still with us, Chase and you were not boyfriend and girlfriend, remember?"

Zoey glared aghast. "So what? She simply bewitched him with her bimboish demeanour, and she remained always on his mind."

Dustin was desperate. "Get a break!" He started weeping, and he walked away. _Maybe Megan Parker was able to get Zoey back to normal? This was unbearable. And Megan had often talked to Zoey about the strange citetitlelet._

* * *

**Place** lounge of Brenner hall

**People** Megan Parker, Dustin Brooks, many other pupils (background)

Megan sighed. "I've been taken away a bit by the citetitlelet, too. You know, I had that dream of the white steed with the shining prince, crossing the campus of the Pacific Coast Academy exactly as described in the citetitlelet ..."

Dustin nodded. "OK. But Chase hasn't done what Zoey accuses him off."

Megan sighed. "Hey! The citetitlelet foretells intrigues, friends accusing former friends, flaky witnesses ... all this will precede the arrival of the King of the Past, and the King of the Future."

Dustin choked. "Oh, really?" He sighed deeply. "We seem to be in the midst of something ..."

Megan nodded. "Thanks for your concerns, you're a much better brother for Zoey than Drake has been for me, although he tries hard now."

Dustin sighed deeply. "I hope so."

Megan agreed. "I will tell Lola not to pull the prank on Chase that I had deviced when I still believed Zoey's accusations that Chase had sent James in order to have a better excuse for dumping Zoey, and to seduce Lola."

Dustin choked. "What plan?"

Megan admitted that she had advised Lola to use her acting prowess in order to make Chase believe that they actually had had something, and that he should take responsibility for their baby.

Dustin coughed. "That's sick!"

Megan nodded. "I'm so sorry for that. And I hope to convince Zoey that Chase hasn't done anything like that, not with Lola, not with Nicole. She should really be glad to hear about that bimbo girl again. I'm glad that I have not come to meet her, has she really jumped into Drake's arms?[50] "

Dustin nodded. "Thanks, Megan, and I hope that your prince in shining armour arrives as soon as possible!" He smiled.

Megan swooned. "Thanks, Dustin!" She waved when she walked away.

* * *

**Place** out on the campus yard

**People** Vincent Blake, Shelby Marx, Ashley Blake

Ashley held a chronometre in her hands, when she saw Shelby and Vince again. "OK, that's five seconds less per mile than last week!"

Vince and Shelby smiled. They knew that time was not an issue for the charity walkathon, but they were very ambitious anyways.

Ashley sat in her chair. "You've been a great team from the get-on."

Vince nodded. "Really!"

Shelby smiled. "Oh, yeah, I definitely think so. Also, Vince is one cool sparring partner for my martial training. The guys before broke down after a dozen of kicks and punches, but Vince stands a few wallowing waves of fists and feet unscathed."

Vince grinned.

Ashley smiled. "So, what about Lola? Wasn't she just a waste of time?"

Vince shrugged. "Without Lola, I would not have found Shelby!"

Shelby smiled. "Oh, you think I may replace Lola?"

Vince chuckled. "Lola who?" He pulled Shelby into a lingering tongue kiss. "Shelby has got more muscles in her tongue than her cousin has got on her whole body."

Shelby agreed wholeheartedly.

Ashley cheered, and she bounced around. She had always seen Lola just as an incident, a necessary evil for Vince to get back at Chase. _Now that Chase was down, Vincent didn't need her any longer in any way._ "I've heard Lola has looked a bit too deep into Drake Parker's eyes, recently."

Shelby and Vince chuckled with agreement.

Ashley admitted that she had encouraged Megan into positioning Drake closer to Lola.

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Stacey Dillsen, Lola Martinez

Lola beamed. "Drake is really hot. Do you think he'll notice me when I wear that fishnet bra?"

Zoey shrugged. "Aren't you laying it a bit thick?"

Lola shrugged, whistling merrily. "Maybe?"

Stacey moaned. "Drake ... his fingers ... aww his fingers!"

Zoey shook her head. "OK, Lola, when will you tell Chase that ..."

Lola told Zoey that she was going to refrain from pulling that prank. "Megan told me that Chase wasn't worth that much effort. I should rather concentrate on my acting career, and being seen in the public near Drake would help that a lot." She swooned.

Zoey shrugged. "Do what you want!" She was disappointed, because she was now almost left alone with her accusations against Chase. _Even Megan did not believe her that much any longer._ She took it all out on Stacey's swabs.

Stacey cried piteously.

Lola shrugged. "Bye-bye!"

Stacey wanted Lola to remember her to Drake, should she see him.

Lola grunted. "Drake wouldn't care about freaky girls who love star-watching and cotton swabs. Maybe he has got one or two insane friends who do?"

Stacey sobbed even more.

Zoey regretted her action, and she helped Stacey with her cotton swabs. "Sorry! I don't know what is going on with me, since a few weeks." She sighed deeply.

* * *

**Chapter 13 Champion of Poets**

* * *

**Time** fall break

**Place** foyer of Hotel Tipton, Boston, Massachusetts

**People** Stacey Dillsen, Chase Matthews, Addie Singer, Nevel Papperman (later), Patrick Fletcher[51] (later), Rebecca T. Wohl[52] (later), Nicole Tiffany Bristow[53], Carla Chelsea Brimmer[54], Wendy Caitlyn Maxine Gellar[55], various other people

Chase Matthews had finally made it to Hotel Tipton.

Being born in nearby Swampscott, Massachusetts, Stacey knew this area very well, and she had accompanied Chase. "OK, now I need to return to cotton swabs..."

Chase thanked Stacey, also he was infinitely tired by her penetrant lisp.

Many participants were already waiting.

Maître D' Patrick entered from the kitchen.

Chase was flabbergasted. "Mr. Fletcher!"

The employee turned around. "Chase...Matthews!"

Chase smiled. "You're now a waiter?"

Mr. Fletcher grinned. "I'm a Maître D', to be precise. But I'm the umpire of the federal contest, anyways."

Chase was still dazed. "Why did you quit as a teacher?"

Mr. Fletcher grinned. "Truly spoken, Dean Rivers was too arrogant for my taste. Not that our manager is much better, but anyways. I was into something that Dean Rivers did not approve of..."

Chase was interested.

Mr. Fletcher felt compelled to talk in whispers, as there were too many listeners. "Mr. Bradford... I think he's a charlatan."

Chase grumbled. "I've heard about rumours into that direction, but I've hitherto believed them to be based on nothing but the hatred of pupils."

Mr. Fletcher sighed. "Certainly, that's what everyone sane would suppose at first glance. But I've stumbled upon things that make it unlikely that the rumours are just plain envy."

Chase was flabbergasted. "OK, I better don't dive any deeper, not at this point, as it makes me too nervous for my presentation."

Mr. Fletcher nodded solemnly. "That's totally true. Let's bear with it!"

Chase sighed deeply.

Mr. Fletcher walked away. "See us in a few!"

Chase sat down.

Suddenly, Chase's ex-girlfriend Rebecca, a nasty wench, walked in. "Chase!"

Chase was consternated. "You also made it into the finals? I didn't know that you are a poet..."

Rebecca grinned diabolically. "I'm just here in order to get back at the daughter of the owner, and at the niece of the manager. They are going to pay for everything they have done to me, after I expelled them from my cheerleader squad."

Chase did not want to know what that vengeful beast was really up to.

Rebecca sat down next to Chase. "How's your little barbie doll doing? Zoey Bitch, or similar..."

Chase blew snoke through his ears. "Found... and lost again..."

Rebecca feigned compassion. "Awwwww... I guess you need some real affection."

Chase gasped. "What?"

Rebecca smiled seductively. She moved closer to Chase.

Chase was dazed. He stammered helplessly. "Please, Rebecca, don't..."

Rebecca giggled. "Hey, Chase! Don't be in denial. You want me, I know that you still want me. Otherwise you would not have trashed Zoey."

Chase shook his head. "I don't! My separation from Zoey Brooks is none of your business."

Rebecca ignored Chase's objections. She grabbed him into a lip rub.

In that moment, Nevel Papperman bounded in. He seized Rebecca's aura with his eyes. "Leave him in beast, you foul demon from the netherworld!"

Chase was totally dazed.

Rebecca broke up. She turned her head around. When she saw Nevel, she started laughing hysterically. "That little boy wants to tell on me?"

Nevel glared menacingly at Rebecca. "_Vade retro me, Satana!_[_56_]". He fumbled some magical gestures.

Rebecca was flabbergasted.

Nevel started reciting a medieval poem.

**_"_**  
The Lord of Lords shall be my light  
Don't let the dragon be my guide!  
**_"_**

Rebecca was shocked. She jumped astir and ran away, screaming with terror.

Chase sighed with utter relief. _Alas, the strange boy must have been a poet, a great competitor._ Anyways, he shook Nevel's hand.

Nevel grinned. "Desinfection spray? Do you know that gazillions of terms sit on your skin?"

Chase coughed. "Er... he coughed and choked. Then he accepted Nevel's offer."

Nevel smiled. "My name is Papperman... Nevel Papperman."

Chase gasped. "I've heard about you... not much good, though."

Nevel sighed. "Oh, who told you about me?"

Chase mentioned that he was at the same school as Carly Shay.

Nevl coughed. "Cursed be Carly and her ilk! Until dystopia is she going to rue it!"

Chase moaned with despair. "Why can't you two get along?"

Nevel shrugged. "Because Carly is stupid?"

Chase figured that it was no use insisting in that point.

Suddenly, Nicole and Chelsea entered the foyer.

Chase squealed with agony when he saw Zoey's former best friend.

Nicole beamed. "Chase! OK, I'm disappointed. You poets are so uncute. But I still love to see you again!" She snuggled the living hell out of Chase.

Chase smiled.

Nicole wondered whether he was now going to marry Zoey.

Chase had to tell Nicole a long story. "So, I doubt that Zoey will ever even forgive me, let alone be a friend again."

Nicole pouted. "Ouch!"

Chelsea grinned.

Nicole said that she was a friend of the heir of the hotel. "She's on a cruise across the seven seas, but I'm welcome here, anyways."

Chelsea nodded. "I'm the second best friend of her trillions. Oh, Chase, do you know my ex-boyfriend Drake Parker? I heard that he went as an adviser to your school."

Chase nodded. "I know Drake. He's cool."

Chelsea pouted. "It wasn't cool how he trashed me."

Chase shrugged. "Sorry. So, I guess you aren't exactly participants of the poets's contest?"

Chelsea and Nicole laughed heartily.

Nicole sighed. "OK, when I heard that you were coming to Tipton's, I took a plane from St. Louis to Boston. Adter the contest, we may return together to Kansas."

Chase smiled sweetly. "That will be wonderful. There are so many things that happened at the Pacific Coast Academy. We all miss you so..."

Nicole swooned. "Those were the days... many cute boys, and the beach, and... did I already mention the cute boys?"

Chase nodded. "Always! But now you've found one cute boyfriend..."

Nicole beamed. "James? Awwwww he's cute... sooooo cute!"

Chase sighed. "I guess so. But do you already know that he had been Zoey's girlfriend? When I was in England, and stuff?"

Nicole gasped. "Wow! I've often worn Zoey's abandoned tanktops, but her abandoned boyfriend, that's really strange."

Chase nodded. "I don't try to dissuade you from James, if you're happy with him, that's totally OK. Alas, we riddle why James appears to be seen by so many people in many places within a short period of time... he really comes and goes."

Nicole sighed. "Let's talk about it later? I need to refresh my face makeup..."

Chase nodded. "Sure!"

Chelsea wondered what sort of poems Chase was going talk about.

Chase stammered. "Some love poems, and some satirical poems about teachers and stuff, just as usual..."

Chelsea nodded. "Will you sing them?" She pointed at the guitar which Chase was still carrying.

Chase nodded. "I want to, but I still lack a tune for some of them."

Chelsea sighed. "Too bad!"

Another girl coughed. "Excuse me, Chase?"

Chase nodded. "That's me..."

Wendy Caitlyn Maxine Gellar smiled. "Hello, my name is Wendy, or Max, whatever you want. Anyways, I'm sort of a music maker. I can help you, as I've just helped Addie." She pointed at a different girl.

Addie nodded. "It's true!"

Chase smiled."That would be totally nice!"

Wendy nodded. "Just show me the lyrics, and off it goes."

Chase looked at his cheat sheets. "OK... here they are."

Wendy waved. "Back in a few!"

Chase relaxed.

Chelsea explained that Wendy had once been a stalking fan of Drake. "Now she writes on and off some tunes for him."

Chase smiled. "That's cool! I often make lyrics for Drake. But none of them ever made it to a concert." He sighed.

Carly shrugged. "Come on, you'll make it!"

Chase sighed.

* * *

**Time** the next day

**Place** foyer of Hotel Tipton.

**People** Patrick Fletcher, Chase Matthews, Addie Singer, Nevel Papperman, other people (background), Wendy Caitlyn Maxine Gellar (later), Nicole T. Bristow (later), Chelsea C. Brimmer (later)

The contest was in its decisive phase.

Mr. Fletcher ordered the pupils to say one last poem.

Chase stood up. "OK..." He strummed his guitar, and started reciting.

**_"_**

Roses are bad  
Violet's aren't true  
I'm very sad  
What about you?

**_"_**

He shrugged helplessly.

nodded. "Thanks, Mr. Matthews. Miss Singer, please!"

Addie stood up. "OK, let me try..." She sighed for suspense.

**_"_**  
... Night after night love's unbearable  
All my friends have become so terrible  
How can life be all-so-horrible,  
forever unfabulous!

**_"_**

Chase applauded in a fair manner.

Addie smiled.

Mr. Fletcher sighed deeply. "Mr. Papperman, please!"

Nevel walked ahead. He had no guitar, unlike Chase and Addie. He glared charismatically around.

**_"_**  
This was a kiss on your cheek  
Yet another kiss I seek  
... A kiss, a kiss is what I seek  
On your lips, not on your...  
**_"_**

Nevel coughed aloud. Then he whispered. "Sorry, my voice is gone, all of a sudden."

Mr. Fletcher gasped. "Oh no, that was so close..." He sighed deeply. "OK, I've come to a decision. The thid prize goes to Mr. Nevel Papperman from the state of Washington. Sorry, you've been so great, until your voice failure."

Nevel twinkled.

Mr. Fletcher continued. "The second prize goes to... Mr. Chase Bartholomew Matthews, from California. And the winner is... Miss Adeliah Singer, from Pennsylvania!"

Addie smiled. "What? Really?" She was a bit surprised by her victory. Then she jumped aloft. "Cheers!"

Chase sighed, and he went congratulating his close competitor.

Addie shrugged. "Sorry, thanks for being a fair runner-up!"

Chase shrugged. He looked at Nevel. "Your voice break-down... it was no accident, was it?"

Nevel tried to deny it but... "You're right."

Chase shrugged. "But why?"

Nevel smirked. "One day, you will understand."

Chase sighed. "OK..."

Nevel nodded. "And if you are looking for a new girlfriend, go and stick to Addie Singer. The two of you have totally compatible auras. There won't be any deliberate muisunderstandings between you."

Chase looked aghast. "Aura? You think so?"

Nevel nodded. "See you again, sooner or later!" he waved at Chase, and then he walked away.

Chase still did not understand. He walked over to Addie. "Hi, Addie..."

Addie coughed. "Chase?"

Chase sighed. "Er... do you want to come with me for a smoothie, before I have to move on?" His voice was a bit clumsy.

Addie shrugged timidly. "OK... of all the participants, you are my favourite competitor... you should know that."

Chase smiled.

Nicole, Wendy, and Chelsea returned.

Wendy smiled. "Both of you were great."

Addie and Chase sighed. "Wasn't that hard, with your tunes..."

Wendy grinned. "Chase, if you go back to California, will you see Drake again?"

Chase nodded. "I sure will! I'll remember you unto him. Maybe also unto his little sister Megan?"

Wendy beamed. "Sure! She has been a great friend of mine!"

Chelsea pondered. "Remember me to him, too, if it's not too much of a trouble..."

Chase shook his head. "I'll do so."

Nicole grabbed Chase. "OK, I've citetitleed two seats from Boston to Kansas City for us..."

Chase thanked Nicole profusely.

Nicole grinned. "Oh, you and Addie would be a cute couple, by the way..."

Chase shrugged. "I'll give it a try!"

* * *

**Time** next day

**Place** Hotel Ritz, Paris, France

**People** Logan Reese, Maris Bingham, Cranberry Sinclair, Dakota North, Patti Perez, Vivian Marx, Dana Cruz, many assorted people (background)

Logan checked into the hotel, accompanied by his fellow models and girlfriends.

According to a message, they had to wait for some local model to help them on their way.

Logan waited.

A model approached them from behind. "Hi, you must be our partners from Los Angeles..."

Logan turned around. He nodded. Then he recognised the girl. His breath froze. "Dana?"

Dana gasped. "Logan?" She was consternated.

Maris asked Logan, "do you know that girl?"

Logan shook his head hypocritically. "No, it's just a girl I'm just meeting for the very first time."

Dana grunted.

Vivian wondered how they knew each other by name.

Logan coughed. "That's because..." He stammered like crazy.

Dana gave it up. "OK, we've been at the same school for jerks for almost a year."

Pattie Perez smiled. "Cool! Dana was your name, right? So, Dana, do you want to come with us? I've heard we've got a suite with whirlpools..."

Dana shrugged. "OK! Let me fetch my swimming suit... not the one I have to present here, but my second choice."

The girls agreed, regardless of Logan's hesitating attitude.

Logan finally gave in. "OK, whirlpool party..."

Dakota concluded, "the more, the merrier!"

* * *

**Chapter 14 Dust In The Wind**

[57]

* * *

**Time** three days later

**Place** bus station of Wichita Falls

**People** Chase Matthews, Nicole Bristow, James Garrett (later), many a random passer-by (background)

Nicole and Chase exited the bus coming from Kansas City.

Nicole beamed. "Your hair is still as bushy as ever before."

Chase nodded.

Nicole suggested, "I could cut it and restyle it, that would make you look more fashionable. Do you know that I've completed an internship at the local barber's?"

Chase shook his head. "Get your fingers off my shrubbery!"

Nicole pouted. "Ouch!"

A stern wind blew from athwart, almost making Chase stumble. It stirred up some loose dirt on the ground, making it swirl across the bus stop.

Nicole held Chase carefully. "At this time of the year, you need to be careful."

Chase sighed. Too much was he accustomed to the gentle weather of Southern California.

The public radio at the bus station started citetitleing _Dust in the Wind_ at top volume.

**_"_**  
I close my eyes  
Only for the moment, and the moment's gone.  
All my dreams  
Pass before my eyes with curiosity  
Dust in the wind  
All they are is dust in the wind.

**_"_**

Chase sighed deeply. _The song fit oh-so-damn-well to his situation._

Nicole tried to cheer him up. "The gust is gone... oops, there's still some dust in your shrubbery..." She tried to clean Chase's hair. "It makes you look even more uncute."

Chase gasped. "A year ago, I had still hoped that Zoey and I..."

Nicole hugged Chase, preventing him to stumble again. "OK, but haven't told her."

Chase agreed. "Then I was in London, and I've destroyed everything by hiring James. What if he's just someone's agent spying on you?"

Nicole looked aghast. "I haven't got any ex-boyfriend..."

Chase nodded. "Yeah, good for you."

And there he was: James Denifer Garrett.

Nicole smiled. Then she jumped into James's long arms. "Hi honey!"

James cuddled Nicole almost to death. "Oh, baby!"

Nicole beamed. "Isn't James cute? Tell me how cute he is!"

Chase sighed.

James was a bit consternated. "Sorry for all the trouble..."

Chase shrugged. "Zoey has turned more and more beasty since my return. People say it has to do with some prophecy about a knight on a white steed..."

James coughed. He stammered, "er... maybe, who knows? Anyways, I could not stand the PCA anymore."

Chase shrugged. "You never seem to stay at the same place for too long?"

James nodded. "That's so... true."

Nicole was a bit disappointed. "Does that mean you will leave Kansas soon enough?"

James sighed. "Not without you, babe! You know, my hjair would be nothing without your superb taste and you nimble hands!"

Nicole squealed.

If Chase had been any less naïve, he would have noticed that James had to hide something.

James wondered whether Nicole was going to take him to the yacht in Florida that London Tipoton, her friend from that Catholic all-girls-school in Boston,had sold her recently for an affordable price.

Nicole smiled. "That would be cool... yachts are so wonderful and cute, don't you say they are cute?"

James nodded. "Of course... especially when you're on one."

Nicole swooned.

Chase asked James about Colin.

"Colin who?" James shrugged.

Chase explained clumsily that it had been his room-mate Colin who had talked him into hiring James.

James chuckled. "That Colin... just one of many content customers of mines."

Chase believed James, not suspecting anything wrong. "So, apparently I 'm the first not so content customer."

James nodded solemnly. He grinned like a funky monkey.

Chase didn't care any more. "I'm over Zoey, now that I've found Addie. She has had similar problems with some Jake Behari as I had with Zoey."

James sighed. "That's so cool..."

Nicole cheered. "Alas, that Nevel Papperman was so uncute, the downright opposite of cute... did I already mention how uncute Nevel was?"

A shockwave ran down James's spine.

Nicole was worried. "What's wrong with you, sweetie?"

James shook his head. "Nothing, babe!"

Naïve Nicole believed James.

* * *

**Place** Seattle, Bushwell Plaza, loft of the Shay

**People** Carly Shay, Spencer Shay, Samantha Puckett, Fredward Benson, Nevel Papperman (later), Marissa Benson (later)

Carly had taken the time for a ride to Seattle, accompanying Quinn Pensky.

Spencer, Freddie, and Sam already awaited her at home.

Carly had expected that Freddie and Sam were still bickering, and that she was needed in order to prevent them from ripping each other's guts.

Much to Carly's surprise, Freddie and Sam stoo there, hand in hand.

Carly was flabbergasted. "What happened to you?"

Spencer smiled. "Well, now they are dating, as they got otherwise bored without you."

Carly sighed. _At least one thing her absense from Seattle had been good for._

Freddie explained, "we are now running our own little web show, with Gibby as the new moderator."

Carly shrieked. "Gibby?" _That must have been a nightmare._

Sam grinned. "And, of course, it's no longer _iCarly_, although we run the same website."

Carly gasped. "Let me guess... it's called _iGibby_?"

Sam and Freddie laughed heartily.

Spencer reported, "Alas, things are not that easy... when we switched ownership, I forgot to tell them that I'm still going to pay for the new address. Amanda Valdez grabbed the site, in order to protect us from some freak snatching it."

Carly was consternated. "Mandy?" _What a horror trip!_ "But Mandy is a freak!"

Sam chuckled. "I know, but would you prefer Nevel Papperman to..."

Carly was close to puking. "Never!"

Freddie nodded. "Anyways, the new name of the show is now _iMandy_"

Carly sank to the floor. "That's terrible. Tell me that it's not true!"

Sam, Freddie, and Spencer shrugged, as it was too true.

Spencer looked at his watch. "Time to get back to _PackRats_![58]"

Sam grinned. "Spencer is so addicted to that thing... he should face my Canadian cousin 'Prodigy'[59]."

Freddie smiled. "'Prodigy' has just beaten Sasha Striker's old record... I don't believe that she exists, though, Sam has made it up, and the one photo she has got of 'Prodigy' is a photo of Sam. She also made up a twin sister named Melanie."

Sam smiled. "Dream on, Dorkward!" Then she kissed his earlobes.

Spencer smiled. "It has been going on like this for weeks... and now also Mr. Galini died.[60] No more pineapple-and-coconut cream pies." He sobbed piteously.

Sam nodded. "He died when Freddie had his first pie. Ma Benson arrived, and she yelled that those pies are so unhealthy."

Freddie cringed. "Mom is now making me fat-reduced cream pies."

Carly gasped. "Fat-reduced cream pies? That's icky!"

Freddie and Sam sighed.

Freddie grinned. "Do you now understand that forboding feelings, curses, prophets, and stuff are all but humbug?"

Carly shook her head.

Freddie sighed with despair. "So... what great things have happened?"

Carly shrugged. "Happened is too much... but Zoey, the sister of Dustin..."

Freddie twitched. "That Dustin? OK, I'mover you, as Samis miuch better, I mean..."

Carly chuckled. "Exactly, the one and only Dustin Brooks. Whatever, Zoey has read some strange citetitlelet, and now she has gone terrible depressive."

Spencer shrugged."I'm going to turn depressive because I haven't got any new socks, Socko has deferred me since a few weeks..."

Carly moaned, "Zoey does invented socks like these... I wonder whether she made your socks, but you still have Socko..."

Spencer shrugged. "Socko is no fashion designer. His sister Penny isn't either, but whenever she's home from her boarding school... hey!"

Freddie and Sam did not think it impossible that Zoey was behind the socks he got from Socko, even via some detour.

Spencer sighed. "Maybe I should try to comfort Zoey? As her best customer..."

Carly nodded. "That would be very nice."

Spencer nodded.

Carly grinned. "And the best is... Nevel was not at the Pacific Coast Academy to bother me."

Freddie and Sam agreed. Alas, they didn't like the momentary peace... "Nevel must be up to something big."

Carly agreed. "That's like my cousin Drake Parker, he never trusts quiet times, secure in teh knowledge that Megan is always up to something."

Spencer wiped some sweat off his face. "That's nothing compared to Chuck, who keeps on tormenting me..."

Freddie scoffed. "Megan is just a halucination, Carly's identically-looking cousin that..."

Carly grumbled. "I rather guess that Spencer is halucinating. Chuck is, for sure. a totally normal tweenie."

Spencer glared aghast.

Sam grinned. "If Chuck, Megan, and Nevel worked together, hell would wreak havoc! Dystopia for everyone..."

Spencer trembled with dismay. "By the way, your old friend Melissa Robinson is soon coming back to Seattle."

Carly gasped. "Missy?"[61]

Sam choked. "You've got an old friend I..."

Carly explained that Missy was the daughter of Commander Robinson, a colleague of her dad. "Too bad I'm not here when that happens..."

Sam grinned.

Suddenly, the door bell rang.

Spencer looked through the peep hole. "Talking about the devil... it's nevel!"

Carly, Freddie, and Sam coughed.

Spencer decided to let him in, anyways.

Nevel wore an English tuxedo suit. "Hi Carlotta!"

Carly coughed and moaned. "Do you have to spoil my few days at home? I'm not going to kiss you."

Nevel grinned. "As if I ever wanted you to, you silly dummy..."

Sam wanted to fit her fists into Nevel's mouth.

Spencer prevented her from doing so.

Nevel smiled. "The end is near, Carly Shay!"

Carly coughed. "I know that you're a spaz, now, do you need to..."

Nevel giggled. "The opera I'm working on is now almost complete. Do you want to citetitle the female main rôle or not?"

Sam moaned. "An opera? What a freak!"

Freddie almost puked. "Mom once dragged me into one of those things, I bored myself to three deaths an evening..."

Marissa Benson opened the door of her apartment, and she stumbled in. "Really? An opera?"

Nevel nodded solemnly.

Marissa swooned. "I love operas, not like the modern junk the kids of today want to watch..."

Freddie choked. "But mom..."

Marissa sighed. "Fredward, I'm going to buy you a new shirt for the première of Nevel's opera..."

Freddie went pale.

Sam comforted Freddie.

Carly was flabbergasted.

Marissa asked Nevel where, and when, the première performance was going to be.

Nevel smiled. "I thought of Carlotta Shay's boarding school, I should be ready at the end of the year, if Carly is..."

Carly fainted.

Nevel gave Carly a _**libretto**_, which is _the script for an opera_. "Maybe some pupils at your school show some sense for culture..."

Carly sighed deeply. "OK, let me see whether there are a few insaners..."

Mrs. Benson pouted.

Spencer shrugged helplessly.

Nevel waved. "Mrs. Benson, it will be a pleasure to have you among the viewers of my opera."

Mrs. Benson smiled.

Nevel disappeared.

Carly sighed when she took a look at the _libretto_. "It looks so spazzish,..."

Sam shrugged. "What else do you expect from someone like Nevel?"

Freddie agreed wholeheartedly with Sam.

Mrs Benson walked out. "Don't forget your tick lotion, Fredward!"

Freddie grunted. "Now I will have to listen to nevel's vomit, as well."

Sam did her very best in order to comfort her fiancé.

Carly took a closer look. "It's called _Dom Sebastião — a king lost and found_."

Freddie remembered that Mr. Devlin had mentioned that Portuguese king. "He disappeared in the battle of Alcacer Qibir, and Portuguese folklore expects him back at the beginning of a new era..."

Carly gasped. "That sounds so much like the whole stuff Zoey has come to read about the real heir of the PCA..."

Freddie comforted Carly. "That's just an incident."

Sam nodded vigorously.

Carly wished she could agree as well, but she had learnt that there were too many things that school knowledge was unable to deal with.

Spencer was now going to prepare his luggage for a trip to California.

Freddie sighed. "I wish I could come with you, but mom would go crazy, and insist in joining me."

Sam nodded sadly.

Carly moaned, "I really want to show you my school, but maybe the opera will change mom's mind!" She held tightly to the script.

Alas, the four of them had got a creepy feeling. _Was Nevel's opera actually good for something? That was so beyond belief..._

* * *

**Chapter 15 The Opera**

* * *

**Time** end of the vacations

**Place** lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Dustin Brooks, Carly Shay, Megan Parker (later), many anonymous pupils (background)

"Carly!" screamed Dustin when he saw his sweetie coming back through the main door.

Carly grinned when she huggled Dustin. "So, how were your holidays?"

Dustin sighed with despair. "You know, I had to stay here in order to watch out for Zoey, she's still so mad at Chase, because she thinks that he has been after Lola, all the time... and Megan's step-brother is such a freak. He thouht he could scare away a wild bear with his grimaces. Fortunately, the bear wasn't a bear, but Drake in a bear's fur..."

Carly nodded sadly, although she thought of the latter incident as somewhat funny. Then she told him about her recent encounter with Nevel.

Dustin was shocked. "Wasn't it enough for the freak to get your show ridiculed, and to get you sent to PCA, destroying effectively iCarly? Does he have to force an opera upon our viewers?"

Carly sighed. "True. Well, at least I wouldn't know you otherwise... and we've got a new iCarly"

Dustin smiled. "Unless you would have read about me in the iCarly reviews..."

Carly nodded. "Probably..."

Dustin grinned. "Still, it isn't the same new iCarly than it was with Freddie and Sam."

Carly sighed. "Too true. Too many things went wrong: Lola and Quinn screwing up, the search for James Garrett aka Jake Crandle..."

Dustin moaned.

Carly finally remarked that Spencer had come with her, trying to help the inventor of his favourite outfit.

Dustin shrugged. "If it helps... but it's so weird that Zoey has always said that Spencer was such a poor excuse of an elder brother and a guardian, and how much she was going to be a better guardian when she turns eighteen. But now she's just a poor excuse of an elder sister."

Carly sighed. "Isn't it strange that Nevel's _libretto_ is so much like the citetitle Zoey had fetched from Mr. Takato? Gibby would say it's not a coincidence, it's Consuela's base revenge[62]."

Dustin trembled. "Consuela?"

Carly nodded fearfully.

Dustin squealed.

Carly sighed. "At least you believe me when I talk about curses, maledictions, omens, and stuff. Sam and Freddie are so stubborn... they just make fun of me."

Dustin shrugged.

Megan came along. "Hi, how were the vacations?"

Dustin and Carly sighed.

Carly knew that Megan practised citetitleing an oboe. "That Nevel freak has given me the libretto of an opera he makes. Maybe you are interested in the _libretto_, so you can practise?" She grinned.

Megan shrugged. "Why not?"

Carly sighed with relief. "I wouldn't have cared, but it seems so much related to Mr. Takato's citetitlelet... it's about a Portuguese king that disappeared in a battle and was supposed to return in full glory..."

Megan glared with a vicious gleam in her eys. "Cool! That can't be a coincidence..."

Carly shuddered. Then she rendered the citetitlelet unto Megan. "Be careful!"

Megan nodded.

Carly smiled.

Megan walked away.

Carly admitted that she had tried to write a citetitle, too. "It's name is _Begin of a Romance_.[63]"

Dustin grinned. "Sounds cool! Is it like _Romeo and Juliet_?"

Carly nodded. "Kind of... sort of..."

Dustin wanted them to rehearse it. "Nobody will care about Nevel's lame opera if they know your cool citetitle..."

Carly smiled with glee. "Sounds like a plot?"

* * *

**Place** Megan's dorm

**People** Megan Parker, Ashley Blake, Vincent Blake

Vincent helped Ashley with her luggage.

Ashley sighed. "I'm glad that Lola has now given up on Vince. Shelby is so much more suited for him."

Megan grinned. "And Drake is much better for Lola."

Ashley and Vince nodded.

Ashley noticed Megan's citetitlelet. "What's that?"

Megan explained the provenience of the _libretto_.

Ashley beamed. "Is there a silent rôle in it for me? Like, a beautiful queen that just listens to the hero's song?"

Megan shrugged. "I've got the thing like 15 minutes ago. I'm of course particularly interested in the musics, looking for oboe passages."

Ashley nodded.

Vincent was finally done helping Ashley. "Off to the football pitch, maybe Shelby will run a few turns with me..."

Ashley waved.

Megan also explained that it was strange how much Nevel's opera appeared connected to the citetitlelet by Takato. "Weird?"

Ashley shrugged. "I don't really care about all the hype."

Megan knew that. _But her dream of being grabbed by the shining white knight was too strong. What if it just meant that she was grabbed by the guy in the rôle of the hero of the citetitle? Wouldn't that have been a bit disappointing, after all she was going through?_ "I guess I need to look around for actors and musicians..."

Ashley nodded.

Megan thought a bit. "OK, Quinn pensky citetitles the trombone[64], Michael Barret citetitles the flute[65], I've seen a violoncellist[66] and a violinist[67]... Drake citetitles, of course, the guitar, but he would hate operas."

Ashley grinned.

Megan sighed. "As for actors, it doesn't look much better. Lola will hate operas, too, but maybe she will want to show you that she can do it, anyways."

Ashley chuckled with glee. "Oh, I so want to see her embarassing herself."

Megan could imagine that.

* * *

**Place** PCA cafeteria

**People** Spencer Shay, Carly Shay, Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks, many othger pupils and staff members (background)

Zoey was still depressed when she returned from the queue. "Spencer?" _Dustin had not told her that the irresponsible freak was going to show up, as well._

Spencer nodded. He had donned a tuxedo from 'Tyler'[68], a brother of 'Socko', complete with tie, and a penny t-shirt by 'Penny', a sister of 'Socko', plus, of course, 'Socko''s indispensable multi-coloured socks with illumination.

Zoey's eyes bugged out. "Carly, why did you have to dress Spencer with all the stuff I have designed a year ago, or maybe two?"

Dustin would have liked to cackle with glee, if the situation had not been so serious.

Carly fainted. "Oh, Zoey, Spencer has been dressing like this for over a year!"

Zoey's head was turning around _There had not been many people who wore more than one accessories she had made, not at the same time at least. Was Spencer really such a faithful customer of hers, and she had not known of that, as of yet?_

Spencer grinned. "So, you are really behind all those things?"

Zoey moaned. "That's true. I've started really early on. My favourite is still my backpack.[69]"

Spencer was eager on having a look at Zoey's backpack.

Zoey promised to show one to him before he had to leave California again.

Spencer smiled. "This cafeteria is strange. They serve spaghetti, sometimes they serve tacos, but have they ever thought about tacos filled with spaghetti?[70]"

Zoey grinned. "Sounds weird!"

Carly smiled. "Spencer designs many weird things, too, sculptures as much as food."

Dustin was happy because Zoey had not started talking about what a 'pig' Chase was.

* * *

**Place** 148 Maxwell Hall

**People** Chase Matthews. Michael Barret, Megan Parker (later), Logan Reese (later)

Chase slumped onto his bed, yawning like a sick hyena.

Michael wondered how his vacations had been. "Have you met Nicole? I've missed her a lot."

Chase nodded. "She's really happy with James."

Michael smiled with glee. "Good for her! Did you find out what is there between James and Colin? It scares me... maybe I'm going to disappear without warning, as they did..."

Chase shrugged."Colin was just some random customer of James..."

Like Chase, Michael was too naïve and stupid to look behind James's masquerade.

But then Chase told Michael that he had made the second prize.

Michael beamed.

Chase showed Michael his diploma.

Michael cheered. But he was somewhat sad. "Why can't there be such a thing for tune composers?"

Chase scratched his bushy head. "Have you really looked?"

Michael shook his head. "Should I?"

Chase nodded. "Probably, or you will not find out!"

Michael sighed.

Then Chase talked about Adeliah Singer, the winner of the whole thing. He blushed.

Michael squealed. "Chase? Are you into that girl?"

Chase sighed. "Kind of... sort of..."

Michael smiled. "Does she know it?"

Chase nodded.

Michael sighed with relief. "That's good, very good... with Zoey, it took you three years and more, and it went nowhere."

Chase agreed sadly. "But one thing is scary: The guy who talked me into considering Addie Singer... he was so mysterious and creepy..."

Megan stumbled in. "Hi, guys!"

Chase and Michael greeted the girl.

Megan was puzzled. "Did you talk about Addie Singer? The one and only?"

Chase was flabbergasted. "You know Addie?"

Megan smiled. "We had been great friends when she visited California, like, four years ago. We made funny clips for my old website.[71]" She grabbed Chase's laptop. "Is it plugged into the interweb?"

Dumbfounded Chase nodded.

"meganpartkerDOTcom," explained Megan. "And there it is."

Chase saw a clip. "Yeah, that might have been Addie when she was a bit younger. Aw, she was really sweet!"

Michael giggled. "Don't tell Addie that she **was** really sweet, she might think you deem her ugly by now."

Chase gasped. "Oops! But who's that elephant?"

Megan grinned. "Josh Nichols, my step-brother."

Michael squealed. "He's soon going to tutor me in science!"

Megan shrugged. "Don't die!"

Michael looked puzzled.

Megan grinned mischievously. "OK, Chase, we're going to talk about Addie later on, but, for now, I've really come because of this..." He showed Michael the _libretto_.

Michael was puzzled. "What's that?"

Megan explained the situation.

Michael was consternated. "So, Nevel knows about Mr. Takato?"

Megan shrugged. "There might be some strange connection, we don't know. We need you as a background flautist. Greg Pattillo[72], a cousin of Carly's old friend Samantha Puckett, would have been better, but I don't know whether we may afford hiring him. And clarinet master Squidward Tentacle[73] is just a toon figure..."

Michael sighed. "Squidward is my idol."

Megan giggled.

Michael pondered. "I am sort of a flautist, but I'm somewhat embarassed. On the other hand... if it is related to Mr. Takato, I want to find out, so I'm interested , anyways."

Megan shrugged. "OK, you're in it, once we find a few actors and actresses."

Michael nodded solemnly.

Logan Reese stumbled in. "Hey!"

Megan grabbed Chase. "Michael, we see us later when I've found a few actors. Chase, let's go to the cafetria, and there we may talk more about Addie Singer!"

Logan shrugged. "Addie what?"

Michael tried to explain the situation.

Logan laughed. "She'sprobably an incredible loser girl, otherwise she woouldn't even consider a loser boy like Chase."

Michael looked aghast. "I'm happy for Chase."

Logan giggled. "Who cares. Do you know whom I've seen in Paris?"

Michael shrugged cluelessly.

Logan grinned. "Dana Cruz!"

Michael beamed. "Dana? She's still alive?"

Logan nodded. "And she's now a model for Sophie Girard[74]."

Michael was flabbergasted.

Logan grinned. "We had a lot of fun, along with the other models. Do you know that Buckminsta is a name? There was a model called like this..."

Michael shook his head. "Never heard of it!"

Logan smiled. "That's because we star models are the ultimate winners, and you aren't!"

Michael shrugged.

* * *

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Spencer Shay, Stacey Dillsen

Stacey still trembled, after Zoey had told her about the fake bear.

Spencer stumbled in. "OK, Miss Brooks. Where are the backpacks?"

Zoey forced herself into smiling when she handed Spencer a hand-designed backpack.

Spencer's eyes bugged out. "Wow, the perfect partner for my sculptures! Are those cotton swab sculptures yours, too?"

Zoey shook her head. "No, they are Stacey's." She pointed at Stacey Dillsen.

Spencer smiled. "They are cool! You should show them Harry Joiner from _National Pop Artist_."

Stacey beamed.

Zoey sat in her bed. "Spencer, have you got some minutes?"

Spencer nodded. "What's up?"

Zoey sighed. "I'm sorry for haveing called you an iiresponsible guardian and elder brother for Carly."

Spencer scratched his chin. "You did?"

Zoey nodded ruefully. "But now I'm no help for Dustin, either, because I've started turning paranoidal, as of recent."

Spencer shrugged. "We all go through phases."

Zoey wondered whether it is hard to register as a guardian for a little sibling when the parents are abroad. "I'm turning eighteen in a few, and ..."

Spencer giggled. "Not too hard, if you've got the parents' consent, and you're not a wanted criminal or so..."

Zoey sighed. "Should I go for it? Even in my current constitution?"

Spencer nodded. "It won't last forever, I think, and you may already start collecting the necessary papers."

Zoey smiled. "Oh, and you're invited to my birthday party, in three weeks from now."

Spencer grinned. "OK!"

* * *

**Chapter 16 Happy Birthday, Zoey!**

* * *

**Time** Zoey's birthday, ere the rise of sun

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Stacey Dillsen, Lola Martinez

Zoey was still half asleep, when Lola bothered her with a song.

**_"_**  
Aw, she's a jolly good fellow  
She's a jolly good fellow  
She's a jolly good fellow  
Which nobody can deny

**_"_**

Zoey smiled.

Stacey had tried to chime in, but her voice was terribly lispy. Then she handed some sculpture to Zoey. "Hi! This is a cotton swab birthday cake, made of cotton swabs and white glue."

Zoey sighed. "Er, thanks,,," replied she hypocritically. "What flavoure is it?"

Stacey remarked that it was just for looking at, not for eating.

Zoey chuckled. "Thanks for the warning!" _Who would have wanted to eat cotton swabs, anyways?_

Alas, dumb Lola started chewing carelessly at some of the cotton swabs which she mistook for cream and fruit jelly. "Egad! The cake tastes horrible" She walked out in order to throw up. Unable to reach the toilets in time, she polluted the floor of the hall between the dormitory rooms.

Stacey started weeping.

Zoey banged her head againbst the wall. _Why, oh why, was she punished with those insane room-mates?_

* * *

**Time** same day, evening hours

**Place** lounge of Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Lola Martinez, Stacey Dillsen, Quinn Pensky, Michael Barret, Dustin Brooks, Carly Shay, Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Spencer Shay, Josh Nichols (later), Mindy Crenshaw (later), Simon Nelson Cooke, Mr. Brooks video screen), Mrs. Brooks (video screen), assorted other pupils (background), Dean Rivers (megaphone), Eric Blonowitz (later)

Zoewy had been a bit disappointed, because everyone seemed to have forgotten about her eighteenth birthday. _Even Dustin had done so, what a bad, bad, bad, bad boy!_. But — upon entering the lounge — Zoey realised that having been apparently forgotten could only mean one thing:

"Surprise!" thundered a bunch of students into her direction.

Dustin was carried on Michael's shoulders, and he held aloft some huge banderole.

"Happy Birthday, Zoey!"

Zoey grinned. "I so should have known that."

Michael sighed. "Chase still hasn't forgiven you your wild accusations, sorry!"

Zoey shrugged. "Yeah, the bushhead is a bit oversensitive from time to time."

Drake had dragged along his guitar. "I've prepared a song for you."

Zoey shook Drake's hand. "That's sweet!"

Drake remarked that Lola had forced him.

Lola chuckled, denying everything.

Zoey shrugged. "Whatever, I would like to cut the cake first ..."

Dustin ointed at the candles. "Don't you have to blow the candles first? So you can wish something"

Zoey smiled."Oh, yeah, I probably should..."

Drake wasn't that sure. "Wait, maybe you should not blow them!"

Zoey scratched her head, "Aw, I shouldn't?"

Drake nodded solemnly. "Megan once made Josh's birthday cake explode, exactly when he blew the candles."[75]

Zoey shrugged. "Oh, she did? Why would a little, innocent girl like your sister want to do that?"

Megan chuckled inaudibly.

Drake grunted, "because she's mean and mischievous! She's a little devil!"

Zoey objected. "Megan is a normal girl, certainly not an evil demon..."

Drake was apparently of a different opinion. "You don't know her as long as I do..."

Zoey sighed. "Sometimes I doubt that I know myself for long enough..."

Dustin giggled.

Zoey glared at Dustin. Alas, any warning notwithstanding, she breathed deeply.

The first candle started to flicker, and...

Boom!

Bang!

Splat!

Many pupils were covered with whipped cream.

Drake moaned, "I've told you..." He stuck a finger into Zoey's face, tasting the cream. "Yummy!"

Zoey sighed. "sorry!"

Megan chuckled noisily.

Drake glared at Megan. Then he pulled Lola close and started to lick her face slowly clean.

Lola purred with excessive glee.

Spencer sighed. "OK, I've got a substitute..."

Zoey peered quizzically at Spencer. "What?"

Spencer unwrapped a large cardboard box.

_Et voilà!_

Zoey could not trust her eyes.

A cake in the likeness of the beautifully backpack which Zoey had recently rendered unto Spencer.

Zoey gasped.

Dustin and Carly grinned.

Zoey stammered, "have you made it all alone?"

Spencer shook his head. "Ive tried to, but Mrs. Benson, the mother of Carly's friend Fredward, has talked me into using fat-reduced, sugar-free cream. So if it tastes horribly..."

Carly snickered.

Zoey shrugged when she took a large cake knife, starting to cut the first priece form the large cake.

Quinn and Cookie pushed a few buttons.

A monitor turned itself on.

Zoey looked aghast. "Dad? Mom?"

Dustin grinned when he waved at the pictire of his parents.

Quinn explained that they were already asleep, so she had recorded a video of them a few hours earlier, using web technology based on Quinndoze QP.

Simon Nelson Cooke nodded solemnly.

The parents congratulated Zoey heartily.

Zoey smiled. "Thanks, that was so great!"

Everyone applauded when the Brooks parents gave a little speech for their daughter.

Zoey grinned. _Too bad she couldn't answer them right away._

Mrs. Brooks assured also that the papers for Zoey's guardianship over Dustin were already right on their way to California.

Dustin was totally excited.

Spencer explained that his grandpa had prepare the papers for Zoey to countersign. "They are in my suitcase. Once you have signed them, and your dad's papers from London are here and verified, you're officially legally responsible for Dustin!"

Zoey grinned mischievously. "OK, Dustin, you know what that means. You're going to follow my rules, 24 per 24 and 7 per 7,..."

Dustin trembled with horror.

Zoey pulled Dustin into a hug and kissed him on the top of his heads. "Really, it just means that we don't have to bother mom and dad with every little thing that needs parental consent, like leaving the campus for a field trip. You know how annoying that was, especially down to the time shift..."

Dustin nodded solemnly and sighed with relief.

Zoey smiled when she rendered a piece of the cake unto Spencer. "Thanks for everything. This cake has really made my birthday!" She wrapped her arms around Spencer and rested her head against his shoulders.

Spencer hugged Zoey back, making her blush a shade of flaming crimson.

"What are we doing?" Zoey gasped.

Carly high-fived with Dustin.

Apparently, the younger siblings were not quite unhappy upon circumspecting the situation.

Some onlookers appluded curiously.

Spencer demented everything. "What are you looking? Mind your own business!"

Michael urged the audience to stop watching. He started pushing them away.

The audience calmed down.

Everyone wanted to hear Drake's guitar performance.

Drake grabbed his guitar. "OK, and now there's a song that I rehearsed especially for Zoey's eighteenth birthday."

The visitors clapped cheerfully.

Drake funmbled with his pockets. "Damn, where is my plectrum?"

Megan chuckled. "Aw boob, your plectrum is in Josh's hands, because you lose it too often."

Drake sighed deeply. "Yeah, dern, that's right. And Josh said that he was going to arrive a bit later."

Megan nodded solemnly. "I'm going to check..." She grabbed her cellular phone. After typing a few digits, she started listenting. "Oh, hi, Josh! This is Megan, yeah, you know, Drake needs his plectrum as soon as possible. We've already been already waiting for quite a while..." She sighed upon Josh's reply. "OK... Josh is now at the campus entrance, and he already knows his way. Mindy wanted to join him, and he had to commit a little detour."

Drake gasped. "What? The creature will come, too?"

Megan shrugged. "She's Josh's wife, you can't simply tell him to come with out her, boob."

Drake glared with excessive despair. "Why, oh why..."

Megan cackled noisily.

Lola didn't care. She preferred flirting with Drake, anyways.

Finally, Josh and Mindy showed up.

Josh handed the plectrum unto Drake.

Megan grunted, "why does Drake not have a substitute plectrum. for all cases?"

Drake glared aghast.

Zoey shook Josh's hands. Alas, when she wanted to shake Mindy's, she gasped with terror and dismay. "What?"

Even Michael recognised Mindy. "The backpack thief!"[76]

Mindy grinned. "So we see us again."

Michael had to explain something unto Spencer. "Four years ago, Zoey had designed her first fanciful backpack. It was rather out of an emergency, because one of her friends had spoiled a backpack in the shop and had to buy it, although it was ugly."

Spencer shrugged. "OK! And then?"

Michael continued, "'Mindy', or, as she dared to call herself, 'Stasie', took pics of the backpack in order to copy it and sell backpacks to other pupils."

Spencer gasped. "That's mean! And Illegal! Mindy, did you..."

Mindy cackled with glee.

Drake was deadly upset. He took his guitar and swang it viciously at Mindy Crenshaw.

Lola cheered for Drake. "Squish her like a bug!"

Alas, Mindy dodged the strike.

Josh tried to stop Drake. "Be careful!"

Having missed Mindy, the guitar hit the table with the buffet.

As if via a seasaw, a plate of spaghetti was hurled aloft, landing on top of JJosh's giant head.

Josh twitched like a dead fish. He lost his balance, slipped on the floor, and keeled over, almost hitt9ng the ground hard.

Fortunately, Megan had been careful, hence she was able to catch Josh's elephantine head right in time.

Mindy cackled. "Aw Brooks, you're so naïve, you thought that by some minor improvement of your backpacks you could destroy the sales of mine, ruining my business, but you've been so wrong..."

Zoey glared quizzically.

Mindy explained that she had ever since copied many of Zoey's designs, selling them on the interweb. "I've hired people like James Denifer Garrett and Tabitha to spy on you in order to copy more design."

The pupils gasped even more. They wanted to seize and strangle Mindy.

Suddenly, a bunch of holograms in the similarity of Mindy Crenshaw appeared.

As much as the pupils tried, they were unable to find the real Mindy, making her escape.

Mindy's shadowy voice boomed once more, "and one day, Drake, your evil sister won't be able to protect you any more, as she did at the occasion of the honour council." [77] Then she was gone.

Spencer sighed. "That's sick."

Michae squealed, "yeah,she's totally insane..."

Zoey was still consternated. "What a mess of a birthday party!"

Drake should Josh. "Did you know that Mindy was up to such a thing? Josh? Josh?"

Alas, Joshuah Nichols was too pale to be able to reply. _Mindy was clearly able to be mean, but this had hit the top of the roof._

Megan prevented Drake from shaking Josh any further. "Let it be. He needs to recover and get over with it first. Michael, may we drag him to your dorm?"

Michael shrugged. "If it were all down to me, it might be OK, but Chase is depressed, and Logan, whenever he returns from a pool party with his top models, might be upset."

Drake sighed.

Dustin offered his dorm for Josh.

Carly smiled. "That's so sweet..."

Drake grunted because he could not stand Robbie Carmichael all that much.

Megan asked Dustin whether he shouldn't take care of his sister.

Dustin sighed. "I trust you girls with that. It's already past eight, so no girls in boys' dorms, and vice versa..."

Megan nodded solemnly. "That's a good point. Dorm addies like Coco go easily through the roof if she finds us violating thta stupid rule, and it would be hard to disguise it from them tonight, even though I am not used to stick to idiotic rules like these if I can avoid getting caught breaking them..."

Drake grinned proudly. "My sister..."

Michael wanted that atleast the others should have a nice party, as long as only possible.

Lola nodded solemnly.

Suddenly, the megaphone sounded across the campus. "Attention Attention! This is Dean Rivers speaking! According to an order by Mr. Bradford, the reunion in the lounge of Brenner Hall is illegal, I repeat..."

The pupils were consternated.

Megan scratched her chin. _Was Mindy an agent of Mr. Bradford? An __**agent provocateur**__ infiltrated among the pupils in ordeer to raise chaos, and justify stern measures? Then, apparently, that fishy guy named 'James Denifer garrett', or any other of his fake names, was a tool of the usurpator and tyrant, too! It was all as Mr. Takato's collected writings had suggested. There was war in the open, and war under cover. But who was to be trusted with these thoughts? Most pupils were already burdened to no end._ She sighed anxiously.

The pupils moaned when they were forced to leave the lounge.

Lola had apparently not understood zilch. She still wanted to dance with Drake...

Stacey weeped with dismay, as a wild stampede of pupils had just stomped all on her cotton swab sculptures which she had made upon the occasion of Zoey's birthday.

Eric Blonowitz, a dorky 'friend' of Drake Parker, stumbled in. "Hey! Where's the party? Where are the girls?" But all he found was a lisping and whining Stacey.

Stacey sobbed piteously. "Maybe I should just take my telescope[78] and watch some stars. My favourite stars are Venus, Saturn..."

Eric gasped. "You've got a telescope?"

Stacey nodded solemnly.

Eric admitted that he spent a lot of time in astronomical observatories.[79]

Stacey grinned. "Would you like to join me watching the stars?"

Eric nodded solemnly. "Sure!"

Stacey smiled, and she dragged Eric along. "Maybe there will be wishing stars tonight..."

* * *

**Chapter 17 White Knight On His Steed**

* * *

**Time** two weeks later

**Place** 101 Brenner Hall

**People** Zoey Brooks, Lola Martinez, Stacey Dillsen, Firewire (phone)

The following days, almost all the students of the Pacific Coast Academy had been working hard on performing the citetitle, or opera, well, it should have been an opera, but as they had not found enough potential performers, they needed to tone it down to a citetitle with musical _intermezzi_.

Tionight, the citetitle was going to première.

Zoey was responsible for the costumes. She took her task very serious, and she researched a lot into the history of renaissance-time clothing in order to design suitable costumes for the citetitle.

Lola was in the rôle of the queen of Spain. She read something interesting imn her favourite citetitle _Teen Buzz_. "Becca Harper is writing about her new boyfriend and his hair... do you think I need more of the glittering stuff?"

Stacey had been rejected for any talking rôle because of her lisp, but was allowed to be a silent backup actor.

Suddenly, Zoey's cellular phone rang.

She picked it up. "Zoey Brooks... what? Firewire, I told you not to call me here on my cellular phone..."

Firewire ignored Zoey's objection. "I've heard Dean Rivers calling Mr. Bradford. It looks like Rivers is now commanding security to interevene and stop the stage performance."

Zoey was consternated. She told Stacey and Lola about the news.

Lola shrieked and squeaked like a fury, making the glass of the windows shatter.

Stacey dropped her cotton swabs, and she started weeping piteously.

Zoey sobbed. _So many efforts had been for naught. Whoever that Nevel papperman was, he had magically achieved several hundreds of pupils to work on the same project for several week. And now it was gone with the winds. It was not going to be easy to spread those devastating news._

* * *

**Place**:  
stage hall  
******People**:  
Quinn Pensky, Simon Nelson Cooke, Carly Shay, Dustin Brooks, Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Ashley Blake, Zoey Brooks (phone)

Quinn and Cookie were working on the accoustics and the illumination of the stage.

It had to be all perfect for the first performance of Nevel's opera.

Megan directed the whole performance, as much as this was still possible, given that she blew the oboe during the real performance.

Dustin worked as a _souffleur_ for the actors.

Quinn ordered Drake to perform various tunes on his guitar.

Drake started citetitleing _Makes Me Happy_.[80]

Megan glared at her brother. "This is not your concert, boob!"

Drake shrugged helplessly.

Ashley complained, because she was not illuminated well enough, which would have meant all light focussing on her, none on the other actors and musicians.

Finally, Quinn's cellular phone rang.

Quinn picked it up. "Quinn Pensky... Zoey!"

Zoey told Quinn about the rumours about security going to mess with the project.

Quinn was consternated. "Thanks for the info! See you later!" She hang up, less polite than usual, so deep was her shock. She waved unto Megan.

Megan stepped up to Quinn.

Quinn whispered the horrible news into Megan's ears.

Megan was upset. _How did Bradford dare to... wait, he was the imposter talked about in Takato's citetitlelet, there was no doubt about it, and he must have smelled that there was a movement to restore the hitherto unknown righteous heir of the Pacific Coast Academy into his office!_ She sighed deeply. Then she walked slowly towards the edge of the stage. "Sorry," started she to talk, "I have to interrupt for a moment." Then she repeated the message about the evil intentions of Mr. Bradford. "Do what you want, but I say, we have to stay and fight for our rights. This is a school's stage, not Mr. Bradford's marionetta theatre."

Drake yawned ignorantly.

Carly and Dustin had not been keen on the whole citetitle, especially as they knew that no other than Carly's most hated nemesis, Nevel Papperman, was at the bottom of it. But they could not help applauding for Megan Parker's last words.

Carly offered to inform her grandpa. "He has been voted five times president of the alumni. he must be very influential among the former graduates of the board."

Dustin hugged his girlfriend. "Go grampa,go!"

Ashley did not understand what all the fuss was about. "All spots on me, damnit! I'm a celebrity!"

Quinn, annoyed to the core, shook her head.

Cookie tried to talk some sense into Ashley, but he was unsuccessful, just as usual.

Quinn took her cellular phone. She dialed Zoey's number. "OK, Zoey, here's Quinn, I've talked to the others. Megan has talked us into bringing it on, at any cost!"

Zoey reacted with consternation, but she could not object, as she had been as disappointed by Bradford undermining her efforts as had been Megan.

* * *

**Time**:  
a few hours later  
******People**:  
Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Zoey Brooks, Lola Martinez, Stacey Dillsen, Quinn Pensky, Carly Shay, Vince Blake, Shelby Marx, Logan Reese, Vivien Marx, Ashley Blake, Melanie Puckett, a platoon of security guards, Firewire, Doty, Arthur, Mr. Bradford, Dean Rivers, many anonymous pupils and teachers (background)

Against all odds, many pupils had been gathered for the première of the citetitle about King Sebastian.

Megan was ready to blow the oboe.

But in this moment a bunch of security people had forced its way into the stage hall, followed by Dean Rivers and Mr. Bradford.

Bradforced reinforced the warning that this performance was illegal. "Fletcher got already suspended, and so will everyone who does not leave this hall in exactly..." He looked sternly at his watch.

Mr. Fletcher was the responsible adviser of the drama group of the Pacific Coast Academy.[81] Well, he had been in this office until a few hours earlier.

Zoey protested. "You can't do that, the citetitle has been officially registered and permitted by the school administration."

Dean Rivers shrugged. "That was an error."

Bradford laughed demonically. "This is my school. I can do what I want. Tou should know that, Brooks!"

Zoey remarked that there were rules that had been agreed upon between the Bradfords, the alumni, and the executive board, rules that were binding for all sides.

Bradford replied that those rulkes were long obsolete, as none of the former alumni was alive, especially not that Galloway guy who had lead the revolt against the school administration.

Zoey gasped, _Which revolt? There was no trace of it in the annals of the school. Wait! There had been pages missing, clearly cut out pages..._

Bradford moaned, "It was an error to admit girls to the school, but Zoey Brooks... That bitch has been the worst that could happen to us. I always knew it..."

Dean Rivers nodded solemnly.

Dustin could not listen to these insults. He leaped foreward, butting Bradford with his head.

Encouraged by Bradford, the security guards started beating away at Dustin and at Carly who tried to protect him.

Zoey yelled manically at the top of her lungs.

Ashley tried to step into her colleagues' defense. "I'm a celebrity, you can't stop my performance! Who are you to dare to?"

The security guards did not listen, not even when Vince threatened to defend his sister's honour with a few punches.

* * *

**Place**:  
campus square  
******People**:  
Coco Wexler, Walter Nichols, Michael Barret, Mr. Takato, many anonymous pupils

Michael Barret had been late for the citetitle where he was intented to perform a few tunes with his flute, and the security guards had not allowed for him to make it into the hall. He shrugged solemnly.

All of a sudden, Michael's eyes bugged out.

What did he see?

Mr. Takato was riding in again on his bony old cow!

Michael grunted noisily. _Where were his friends? He could show them Mr. Takato on the cow, but a platoon of security guards had sealed off the theatre, it seemed._ He tried to make his way through a bunch of laughing students, but he failed.

All of a sudden, an explosion was heard from the stage hall.

Michael remembered that Quinn had recently experimented with new detonants of high brisance. He also remembered that Firewire and his pals deemed little detonations as the sign of the pending end of the world as they knew it. _Was the end finally near?_

Most of the pupils that were jamming Michael's way were in awe of the cow-riding senile freak, and they stepped out of the way of the bony beast with hooves and horns.

Michael shrugged when he stepped fearlessly up to the cow, and he followed Mr. Takato's ride.

Coco Wexler and Walter Nichols, step-dad of Megan Parker, were standing in the way, flirting recklessly while licking a can of ravioli they had found in the trash bin.

The cow slammed them out of her way.

To many pupils' surprise, the rider and his mount steered straight towards the entrance of the stage hall.

* * *

**Place**:  
stage hall  
******People**:  
Michael Barret, Mr. Takato, a platoon of security guards, Dan Rivers, Mr. Bradford, Zoey Brooks, Dustin Brooks, Carly Shay, Ashley Blake, Vince Blake, Megan Parker, Drake Parker, Quinn Pensky, Simon Nelson Cooke, Logan Reese, Vivienne marx, Shelby Marx, Firewire, Arthur, Doty, many anonymous pupils and teachers, Grandad Shay (later), Garth Burman (later)[82], Jake Crendle (later), Nevel Papperman (later)

Quinn Pernsky had thrown miniature smoke grenades in order to make work for the security guards harder, allowing Zoey to treat her injured little brother and his unconscious girlfriend.

Vince Blake and Shelby Marx tried to tried to defend the injured pupils as much as possible from the clubs of the Security mongers, but he got hurt badly in this process.

Drake used his guitar as a shield in order to support Vince.

In this moment, the cow carrying Mr. Takato broke in through the entrance door.

Bradford was consternated. "Takato?"

The senile bovine knight grinned.

Bradford boomed, "you know that you are banned from here, so get away!"

Mr. Takato grinned, "I don't exist!"

Bradford was puzzled. "Whatever, nobody who exists, and even nobody who doesn't, is entitled to violate my rules on my campus!"

All of a sudden, Grandad Shay and Executive Chairman Burman broke in through the entrance.

Burman stepped up to Bradford. "Don't believe this man, he is not the legitimate owner of the Pacific Coast Academy!"

Dean Rivers looked puzzled. "What?"

Bradford choked.

Burman boomed, "this is an imposter, the true heir of Mr. Bradford, our founder, is lost since long time, and no legitimate heir has so far been found. As long as this is the case, the executive board is going to rule the school on the base of amendment 8 of the constitution of the Pacific Coast Academy from July 4 1948."

The security guard surrendered to the verdict by their executive chairman who was actually their boss, akin to the original contract between the board and the founder.

Bradford thundered, "the devil must have told you..." He was too old and clumsy to get away, so the guards would have caught him easily, but all of a sudden... Bradford was gone, and in his place there was...

James Garrett! He cackled manically when he escaped past the consternated masses of pupils, the guards, and the chairman.

The pupils were now really perplexed.

Zoey yelled like crazy. _Had James Garrett been a shape-shifting demon?_

Mr. Takato sat silently on his cow.

The fog and smoke caused by Quinn's bomb was still billowing all over the stage entrance.

Burman had decided to repeat the citetitle in a few days, as this performance had turned into too much of a mess.

Most of the pupils agreed.

All of a sudden, the cow got covered in a shimmering light.

Also, Mr. Takato appeared to glow mystically.

The attention of most of the pupils was now taken by mount and rider.

After a few impressive moments, the bony old cow reshaped into a noble white steed, and the rider was no longer senile Mr. Takato, but... Nevel Papperman!

Everyone glared aghast.

Alas, megan fell on her knees in front of the steed.

Nevel gave Grandad Shay a letter.

The master alumnus opened the letter, eyed carefully by Garth Burman.

The executive chairman eyed evcery word of the letter.

Mr. Shay announced the verdict, "the letter proves that Nevel Papperman is the legetimate heir of the Pacific Coast Academy."

Burman agreed solemnly.

Michael Barret gagged with disgust. _So, Mr. Takato was not real, but Nevel Papperman in disguise? And horses ere so dangerous! It was best to stay away from them._[83]

Nevel commanded Megan to mount the horse, and to citetitle the ultimate tune of his opera on her oboe.

Megan did as commanded.

Nevel whispered something to the horse, and he disappeared with Megan out on the campus.

* * *

It took consternated Zoey several weeks to put the remaining bits and pieces together.

Mr. Bradford was an evil demon incarnate, and, failing to expell notorious danger Zoey Brooks — he had always supposed her to be connected to the legend of the returning true heir — from the campus, he had done everything to keep her under control, to the extent of taking the shape of comatose James Garrett and seduces various pupils, under the pretense of being a paid faithfulness spy. This way, he achieved getting innocent people like Chase Matthews blamed. The demon had already seduced Stacy Dillsen, but seducing Zoey had been his masterpiece, and the amulet he gave her was his tool to increase the confusion.

The amulet was cursed, just as that of Charles Galloway, whom he had driven into insanity like fifty years ago.

Galloway had been aware of a conspirtaion by Mr. Hodgens and the evil demons, and he would have prevented everything had he not gone crazy.

Nevel was the grandson of the disappeared heir. He had used his site in order to gather those informations.

Zoey was sad because Nicole had fallen for a demon.

Alas, a few months later, Nevel told Nicole to visit the real James Garrett in his hospital where he, as a hopeless case, was stationed.

Although the real James looked rather freaky, Nicole dared to kiss him, awaking him from his otherwise hopeless stasis, so the two of them could become happy ever after.

Of course, Nevel was too young to rule the school, but Garth Burman had to do that on his behalf.

Under Burman's custody, the Pacific Coast Academy started to flourish and became finally the world-wide centre of culture that it had been envisioned to be by its founder.

Lola and Drake were about winning Oscar awards, supported by their new followers Chad Dylan Cooper, Portlyn, Tawni Hart, Miley Stewart, Shane Grey, Ashley Blake, and many many others.

Quinn and Cookie won the next Nobel's for physics and chemistry.

Zoey, accepted as a new Vice President at MadStyle Inc, was the most succesful fashion designer of all times, along with her new friends Geena Fabiano and True Jackson.

Shelby and Vince won gold medals in the following Olympic Gampes.

Nevel and Megan became the new champions of classic instrumental music: Nevel as a pianist, Megan with her oboe. And if they haven't died yet, they still rule over the Pacific Coast Academy.

**_The End_**

* * *

** 1**:  
both Firewire's pals in _Chasing Zoey_  
**2**:  
three members of the band that citetitleed at Chasing Zoey, the members were anonymous. Their names are taken from _iCarly_ : _iAm Your Biggest Fan_ where they acted as a hard rock band, too. They treated Spencer like dirt.  
**3**:  
in _Drake & Josh_ : _Little Diva_, Ashley Blake is the little diva tormenting the title characters  
**4**:  
a model in _True Jackson VP_ : _True Crush_  
**5**:  
a martial artist in _iCarly_ : _iFight Shelby Marx_  
**6**:  
Dustin's nervous friend in _Favor Chain_. Identified with Robby Carmichael from _Drake & Josh_ : _Treehouse_, owner of a treehouse and annoying neighbourhood kid  
**7**:  
cameo by same actor in _Quarantine_, identified with James Garrett  
**8**:  
Coco's boyfriend according to _Zoey 101_ : _Hot Dean_  
**9**:  
_Zoey 101_ : _Spring Fling_ — Drake Bell is here seen as an artist's pseudonym for Drake Parker.  
**10**:  
cf. _iPilot_  
**11**:  
cf. _Good-Bye, Zoey!_  
**12**:  
cf. _iCarly_ : _iRue The Day_  
**13**:  
cf. _Chase's Grandma_  
**14**:  
cf. _Spring Fling_  
**15**:  
cf. _Dinner For Two Many_  
**16**:  
Chase's invisible yet audible room-mate in _Trading Places_  
**17**:  
cf. _iCarly_ : _iSaw Him First_  
**18**:  
no intentional reference to the famous Marx-Brothers around Groucho Marx  
**19**:  
mentioned in _Chasing Zoey_  
**20**:  
inspired by the show _Glee_ which I don't own  
**21**:  
cf. _Surprise_  
**22**:  
cf. _Dinner For two Many_  
**23**:  
cf. _Bad Girl_  
**24**:  
Megan's perverted boyfriend in _Megan's First Kiss_  
**25**:  
cf. _Lola Likes Chase_  
**26**:  
cf. _iCarly_ : _iAm Your Biggest Fan_  
**27**:  
Freddie's hypocritical gf in _iCarly_ : _iWill Date Freddie_. Later identified with a Valerie mentioned derogatorily by Zoey, Lola, and Quinn in _Drippin'_  
**28**:  
mentioned in _iCarly_ : _iKiss_  
**29**:  
the same actor had cameos in _Ned's Declassified SSG_  
**30**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ _The Rollercoaster_ and _Drake & Josh_ : _The Demonator_  
**31**:  
cf._Favor Chain_  
**32**:  
cf. _Chasing Zoey_  
**33**:  
cf. _Trading Places_  
**34**:  
cf. _Spring BreakUp_  
**35**:  
cf. _Walkathon_  
**36**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Alone At PCA_  
**37**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Michael Loves Lisa_  
**38**:  
sidekick to _iCarly_ : _iSaved Your Life_  
**39**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Hands On A Blix Van_  
**40**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Roller Coaster_  
**41**:  
cf. _Drake & Josh_ : _Paging Dr. Drake_  
**42**:  
cf. _iCarly_ : _iSaw Him First_  
**43**:  
spoof off _Malcolm In The Middle_ which I don't own  
**44**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Radio_  
**45**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Lola Likes Chase_  
**46**:  
coach Juan from _iCarly_ : _iFight Shelby marx_, identified with Lola's dad who, akin to _Zoey 101_ : _Wrestling_ is some sort of coach  
**47**:  
song by Drake Bell which I don't own  
**48**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Chasing Zoey_  
**49**:  
from _Suite Life of Zack and Cody_  
**50**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Spring Fling_  
**51**:  
identification of Mr. Fletcher from _Zoey 101_ : _The Citetitle_ and Maître D' Patrick from _Suite Life Of Zack and Cody_  
**52**:  
identification of Rebecca from _Zoey 101_ : _Chase's Girlfriend_, and Dana Wohl from _Suite Life Of Zack and Cody_: _Benchwarmers_  
**53**:  
identified the_Zoey 101_character with Tiffany that appears on and off in _Suite Life Of Zack and Cody_  
**54**:  
idenrtifies Carly from _Drake & Josh_ : _Who's Got Citetitle_ with Chelsea Brimmer who appears on and off in _Suite Life Of Zack and Cody_  
**55**:  
identifies Max from _Suite Life Of Zack and Cody_ with Caitlyn Gellar from _Camp Rock_ and Wendy from _Drake & Josh_: _Fan Number One_  
**56**:  
cf. _Gospel according to Mark, 8:33_  
**57**:  
song by Kansas which I don't own  
**58**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iStage An Interventiobn_  
**59**:  
from _Best Citetitleer_, a movie that I don't own, either  
**60**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iPie_  
**61**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iReunite with Missy_  
**62**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iStage An Intervention_  
**63**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iSaw Him First_  
**64**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Quinn's Alpaca_  
**65**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Hot Dean_  
**66**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Hot Dean_  
**67**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Radio_  
**68**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iPromote Techfoots_  
**69**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Backpack_  
**70**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iWill Date Freddie_  
**71**:  
cf. _Drake & Josh_ : _Honor Council_  
**72**:  
cf. _The iCarly Show_ : _iHeart Art_  
**73**:  
from _Spongebob Squarepants_, a cartoon which I don't own either  
**74**:  
mentioned somewhere in _True Jackson VP_  
**75**:  
cf. _Drake & Josh_ : _Josh runs into Oprah_  
**76**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Backpack_  
**77**:  
cf._Drake & Josh_ : _Honor Council_  
**78**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Fake Roommate_  
**79**:  
cf. _Drake & Josh_ : _The Wedding_  
**80**:  
song by Drake Bell which I don't own  
**81**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _The Citetitle_  
**82**:  
cf. _Zoey 101_ : _Spring Fling_  
**83**:  
mentioned in _Zoey 101_ : _Silver Hammers_


End file.
